Women Only by Stefan May
36 of 105 photographs out of the coffeetablebook "Women Only",
published by teNeues (2009)
(...) His photographs are exceedingly favorable to women without at the same time turning against men. They disclose the character of the portrayed woman. They dare and show a lot without ever transgressing the borders of decency or aestheticism. They are neither hard nor soft, instead, they are thrillingly erotic and moving (...)
Most nude photographs are made for male onlookers. On closer analysis, it becomes clear why Stefan’s pictures are so appealing to women: We are never victims of the camera; we are never robbed of our dignity or privacy; we face the lens, confident and active; at times we are extremely flirtatious, at times we pretend to be innocent, at other times we are openly challenging. Stefan knows instinctively which side he can tickle out of which model. This is why his photographs are so multifaceted. The motifs and situations never freeze into a self-imposed uniform corset, which some photographers misunderstand to be the basis of a unique style. The individual signature of May is his visible naturalness, which is persistently conspicuous (...)
Petra Winter, Editor in Chief of Cosmopolitan Magazine Germany 2009
