Bio

Jerrie Hurd is the author of three novels and numerous other articles, essays, short stories–no poems. When the writing began to feel like work, she took up fine art nude photography because it sounded fun. Also when someone asked what kind of photography, she got to say “nudes” and watch that information sink in. Jerrie is a grandmother and doesn’t fit the stereotype, if there is one, of a figurative photographer.

“Why nudes” is almost always the next question.

She knows why. Capturing the human form is both a technical challenge and an artistic nightmare. Curves, skin tone, muscle, and movement all come with their own difficulties in terms of lighting, exposure, composition, and creating a good print. As if that weren’t hard enough, then you have to work around multiple artistic hazards. The naked human body is sensual. How the photographer chooses to handle that sensuality says a lot about her work and is the defining line between porn and fine art. Then there’s the question of beauty. The figurative photographer cannot ignore the body image movies and fashion have determined is desirable, because, like it or not, every one has that built-in bias. The problem is finding unexpected beauty in the human form or presenting the expected in a way that plays upon or challenges those expectations.

Jerrie’s fun away from the writing desk has shown at Camera Obscura, the Dairy Center for the Arts, Boulder Museum Of Contemporary Art’s Trunk Show, and Open Studios in both Boulder, Colorado and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Maybe, she never intended her work to be a hobby. Check out the galleries on this site to get a sense of her work. Don’t miss the blog for a discussion of how she sees images and works to capture them. Enjoy the discussions on “How to tell your friends you collect nude art” or “How to decorate with nude photographs.”

What else do you need to know?

Jerrie Hurd is a graduate of University of Colorado Boulder and University of Oregon Eugene. She has lived in Idaho, Oregon, New Jersey, and New Mexico, but longest in Colorado where she lives now with husband and two Great Dane dogs. She has two sons and three grandkids. She also takes photos of the kids and dogs.