Uncovered: Celebrating Women in New York City
The photographer writes: A woman's right to appear topless in public was legalized in New York in 1992. Since New York is the only state with such a law, forty-nine out of fifty states deem it illegal for a woman to remove her shirt in public. However, men are free to take off their shirts with impunity. Challenging this inequity between the sexes is the purpose of my work. There has been a recent shift in America towards a socially conservative philosophy, so right after Janet Jackson's breast was exposed at the Super Bowl, I started asking women to appear topless in New York City. I wanted to document what the Federal Communications Commission called "great outrage among the American people" over a bare breast. But soon I realized there was very little outrage. Of the thousands of people who saw the women topless, most reacted with enthusiasm, humor, and encouragement. This project has been featured by the Today Show, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, The BBC, the New York Daily News, The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, WOR Radio, CBS Radio, NY1 News, and the Foley Gallery in Chelsea.