The naked body has been used in art since—well, since there was art. There’s something so intriguing about the form we all, more or less, share. For U.K. magazine, Sport, Jon Enoch shows off top U.K. athletes not only in their natural physical form, but in form for the sport that each one masters.
Sport is the U.K.’s top sports magazine, and as part of a re-design they decided to start a biweekly spread called Sport Uncovered. The series features a new athlete with each spread, with some words from the athlete and a photograph of the athlete in position for their athletic task, courtesy of Jon Enoch. Jon is given total artist freedom on his shoots for Sport Uncovered, and working with art director John Mahood, he is able to pump out image after image of these stunning nude portraits.
With a new spread coming out every two weeks, Jon has to get crafty in inventing new poses for the athletes. The poses must accomplish two things. First, they must show the athlete in a form that reflects their sport. Second, they must allow for a natural covering of the more private body parts. On top of this, Jon wants to make sure that the poses as a collective come together as a cohesive body of work, while also not getting repetitive. Jon is committed to keeping the nudity artful, not resorting to using sports equipment to cover up body parts, so he has to be innovative with each shoot.
With the demand for these photos, Jon and his team shoot around six images in one day, with shoots every couple months. He does research ahead of time so that the shooting can be economical and smooth.
The shoots are now a very well oiled machine, and so from the makeup artist, to my assistant, to the art direction, we all know exactly what we are doing.
Jon’s images are making a mark. While Sport originally intended for a new photographer to photograph the athletes each week, they are so pleased with the direction Jon has taken things that they are sticking with him as the man for the job. He has already shot ten future images for the series, and there are more in the works. Jon even says there’s some chat of a book and exhibition, but for now we will have to “wait and see.”
To view more of Jon’s work, visit jonenoch.com.