Limb by limb

Photo exhibition lays bare an ancient discipline

Photographer Western Doughty once confined himself to a seedy motel room for weeks attempting to capture a slice of life along Route 66. He’s now months into a similar project, for which he has taken up residence in a dilapidated trailer park. 

In the service of art, Doughty is no stranger to sacrificing comfort. 

What he won’t do is yoga.

“I’d probably like it if I tried it,” Doughty said with a laugh. “But I’m just an asshole, too old to try new things.”

Despite little interest (and a mild disdain) for the discipline, Doughty’s latest exhibition, “ANGA-limb,” takes a closer look at the practice of yoga in a series of abstractly framed black-and-white shots of yogis in the nude. The exhibition will have its official opening at Be Love Yoga Studio (1310 E. 6th Street) in early February. 

The Tulsa Voice: If you had a fairly negative view of yoga to begin with, what brought this about? Why choose this as a subject?

Western Doughty: Well, it started with Joe Andoe—amazing artist, originally from Tulsa. Playboy Magazine took a chapter from [Andoe’s autobiography] Jubilee City and turned it into a cartoon. One day, Joe was going to be in town, and I ran out and bought some copies of the issue because I wanted him to sign them. 

I hadn’t looked at a Playboy in probably 20 years. But I flipped through it, and I came across a pictorial on nude yoga. Just the title: “Om Sweet Om,” right off the bat, it already pissed me off. The whole thing just really bothered me. For one, it bothers me on a technical level because they’re just terrible photos. And two, it’s just so sexualized and misogynistic. It totally has nothing to do with yoga, or the spirit of it. And it pissed me off. 

So I started thinking, you know, if they had done a nude pictorial of yoga poses, if they had fragmented the poses and framed them in a meaningful way, it could’ve spoken to the spiritual aspect of it, the tone of it, the value of it, the meaning of it. And it would’ve been respectful of yoga. 

So I started doodling on the actual Playboy photos, how they might be framed better, and lit better, and then said, “Well, I’ll just do it.”

TTV: What was the shoot like?

WD: Bill Hader Sr. let me set up in one of his empty offices, I found some subjects who liked the concept, and I just set up and shot—and immediately everything just clicked. It happened perfectly. The lighting I envisioned worked perfectly. 

I don’t like smoothing skin. I wanted it to be as raw and as real as possible, blemishes and all. There’s one shot where one of the men has a Band-Aid on his knee, and I told him to just leave it. I wanted it to be as real as possible.

They asked me if I wanted them to do any particular poses, and I said no, I want it to be a collaborative effort. I wanted them to feel that they could do whatever they want. Just pose. Do what comes naturally. But if I tell you to hold it, hold it. 

I shot it in three days, had it printed on watercolor paper by [Tulsa artist] Tommy Ball, and it just turned out exactly how I wanted. Like it was meant to be.

ANGA-limb opens with an artist meet-and-greet Thursday, Feb. 5 from 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. // Be Love Yoga Studio, 1310 E. 6th Street // facebook.com/BeLoveStudio

​Want more from Matt? Check out his stories on local musicians Jacob Tovar and Fiawna Forté.