Professor of Architecture Jean-Paul Bourdier’s newest book of photography, Body Unbound, published by Koehler, continues his visual exploration of human existence through the physical, ethereal and our cultural ancestry. Beyond his visual landscapes, Bourdier takes readers behind the scenes to show the process of how he builds his beautiful analog photographs from their architectural sketches to the live shoots. The book also includes contemplative verses, field notes and stories told by the participants and Bourdier himself. 

Professor Bourdier is a photographer of unique style, passion and compelling imagination, which he balances across the nexus of multiple crafts, among them painting, poetry and performance art. His work is stunningly original, brimming with self-assurance, and paradoxically simple and yet complex. Each image is a unique scene – created, staged, captured - of natural landscapes joined with the human form, expressing beauty, truth and wonder in the physical plane, as well as in our imaginations. The natural landscape connotes the fabric of our existence. The human bodies are bare to connote the primordial human condition, vulnerable and dispossessed of material necessities in the face of our Earth and its natural elements. The images are meant to fluctuate between moments of clarity where all said elements appear to be unified, and more problematic moments which relate to our limitations. Many of the images in Body Unbound focus on a most common human desire - the longing to experience true freedom.

Professor Bourdier’s painting exhibitions and photographs of body art and sculptures have been widely exhibited, winning 14 national and international competitions, including Guggenheim, American Council of Learned Societies, NEA Graham, UC President’s Humanities, and Getty awards. This latest collection of photographs by Professor Bourdier is the third in a series of books exploring natural landscapes joined with the human form: he is also the photographer and author of Bodyscapes (2007) and Leap Into the Blue (2013).

Body Unbound and Leap Into The Blue are now both available to purchase via Professor Bourdier's website or on Amazon. Both books are signed by Professor Bourdier, and Body Unbound also comes with a hand signed 9x9” numbered print!