“A Long Time Ago…..”

We were reviewing Rich’s pictures recently and marvelling about how far he has come, photographically speaking, in the last few shoots.

“I want to be shot with your new light-meter”, I said. “My portfolio looks very substandard compared to your new abilities. I want to look like that.”
I was looking at the gorgeous Linx at the time (Photo below)

My dear husband wiped his face of all expression and said “I am very happy to shoot you so you can update your portfolio. ”

Mmm. I detect a small whiff of some unspoken undercurrent here.

“Are you saying that I couldn’t look like that? I demanded angrily.

“Well, you do have the disadvantage of 11 years breastfeeding” he replied wearily. “I am somewhat limited to shooting your behind. It’s a lovely behind you know, but folks want to look at the front too.”

“Are you saying I’m too old for art-nudes? I demanded somewhat hysterically.
He had a somewhat panicked look in his eye at this point. Faced with the prospect of two hysterical females in one day (He had already placated an upset two-year old who wanted her photo taken for the hundredth time), he clearly felt that whatever he said would be wrong, and that he was walking on glass.

“I am in a no-win situation here” he said. “If I say yes, I prefer to shoot you with clothes on, then you’re going to get upset because you want to do nudes, but on the other hand, there’s only so many shots you can take of someone’s back.”

“So I am too old!” I said, tears welling up.

You can at this point understand why he wants to give up photography sometimes, and indeed in such circumstances, I find it understandable why many married photographers don’t tell their wives that they photograph young and gorgeous naked models.

My patient husband sighed and remained wisely silent.

I flicked open my web browser moodily and started flicking through random images on web-models.co.uk

My oldest son appeared out of nowhere, peering over my shoulder. He tends to do that a lot nowadays whenever we are looking at beautiful models (other than his mother which is absolutely, totally, utterly gross apparently). Girls have suddenly become VERY interesting to him, and sometimes I am not quick enough to close down the web browser when browsing model portfolios.

“I used to have boobs like that” I said talking to Rich about a gorgeous-but-very-chesty model we were looking at. “But it was a long time ago”

My son piped up “…..In a Galaxy far, far away”.

Humph. He is SO on bread and water for tonight’s dinner.

The Little Diva

In total desperation, we have resorted to the ten minute mini-shoot "quickie". This is as much time as we can get shooting me, before the little two year-old Madam detects that we doing a shoot and rushes shrieking into the studio : “Dada, Picture, Me, Dada Picture, Me!”

She has taken to wearing pink and glittery girly rings and bracelets both day and night (“pretty, pretty”), and insists that she has her very own Personal Photographer who must shoot ONLY HER in her prettiest dress (or in fact any pink ensemble as long as she is wearing her jewellery). If she detects (with her supernatural sensory abilities) even a whiff of a shoot going on, she shrieks like a banshee and rushes in like a mini-tornado, hurls herself onto the grey backdrop, face down, and after a 5 minute tantrum-from-hell (which we actually do try to shoot around), she sits up calmly, pivots gracefully into a regal pose, and says “Cheese” in her best girly voice.

At this point, we have lost the plot, and wearily give up in favour of a cup of tea.
We have taken to sneaking into the studio at opportune times when she is asleep to grab as much time as we can with the camera (the studio is just next door and we are all keeping a beady eye on her). But she seems to have a subconscious photographic detector alarm which goes off even when she is asleep, and wakes her up as Mistress Hyde who is exerting the full force of her considerable willpower to be the absolute centre of attention at all times.

Clearly we have created a monster. But a very cute monster nonetheless. And it is difficult to resist the charms of a pretty girl, as we all know.

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And talking of pretty girls, here is an image of Kate taken earlier this year on Rich's old camera, the 350D. This was taken on the first backdrop we ever had, which was a pretty awful shade of purple, but despite this the lovely Kate looks really elegant.

Zombie Togs 'n' Models

Alas we are not posting much on the blog this week, so there is a distinct absence of new ‘n’ luscious looking laydeez on which to feast your eyes.

Rich did a private shoot for two good friends at the weekend. Lots of chardonnay and mucking around in front of the camera resulted in some really nice portrait piccies. It was certainly weird to shoot folks with clothes on for a change, but they were very happy with the results. Unfortunately we can’t show the pictures here as a) They were private ones for them to take home and b) They had clothes on ! So not so relevant for the blog (they are thanking their lucky stars for that, I bet!)

But it’s back to the fine art-nudes next week, so expect some new piccies then.

Other news is that Rich has been invited by the camera club (the same one with which he had the inquisition a few months ago) to give a talk on his portfolio in a few weeks time. He also has to display and talk about 12 of his best pictures. Finally !!! This is a totally amazing turnaround for them, although they still don’t want him to show nude images, just implied. The poor man is struggling to find ANY 12 implied nude pictures in his portfolio, let alone them being his best work.

I am not doing any modelling at the moment (boo, hiss) due to our delightful 2 year old daughter, who is a total diva and refuses to let her Daddy photograph anyone at all, especially her Mum. Daddy belongs to her and no-one else, and he must only photograph HER, in her best frock and ribbons, otherwise she will have a SCREAMING TANTRUM that lasts at least 2 hours. She is also keeping us up most of the night, for reasons I am not entirely sure of, other than she can. So the end result is an extremely tired set of parents, and a grumpy mother who is unable to be photographed because she has bags under her eyes the size of potato sacks, and who closely resembles the creature from the black lagoon. It has now been well over a month since I was last in front of the camera. To say I am pissed is the understatement of the year. Rich is in for a rough week.

To lighten the mood, here again is the lovely Linx. Do any of us ever get tired of looking at that magnificent chest ? Methinks not. She really is awesome. And no potato sacks under her eyes either.

We are walking clichés

It occurred to us last night that we are both stereotypes. In fact we are downright clichés

Rich: Age 41, degree in physics and electronics, married to a bottle blonde with 2.4 children (the young one is only two, so she only counts as a 0.4), BMW, Labrador, big home in country. Plus he is a software engineer (I’ll get lynched if I call him “computer programmer”) who had a classic mid-life crisis, bang on the dot of turning 40 (pun intended).

Yes, you guessed it, the mid-life crisis was the photography of nudes. There are a heck of a lot of computer programmers on MM who have a mid-life crisis and start photographing nudes. The poor man – even his mid-life crisis is a cliché. The only difference being, of course, that he happens to be very good at the “photographing nudes” bit. What might have originally started out as a mid-life crisis has actually turned into an all-consuming passion which will no doubt carry him through to his next life crisis, due at 60 if the statistics are to be believed.

The only stereotypical life event due in two years time is the divorce (most men divorce at 43 apparently) where he is supposed to run off with a younger model…..I kid you not. This may yet happen of course (over my dead body), as no-one can predict the future with absolute certainty.

Lin: Age 39, mid-life crisis due next year (if women have time to actually get them), degree in law, chartered accountant, married with 2.4 kids, a health-nut, drives thirsty off-roader, reads the Daily Telegraph & Financial Times, drinks too much damn chardonnay. Spends life majorly stressed, organising husband, kids, businesses, models etc Life is one big organisational nightmare. At 40 I am supposed to either get religion in a major way, or have an affair with a toy-boy (either choice presumably thus encouraging said husband to run off with younger model).

Will we remain stereotypes forever ? Will our lives continue to be as corny and predictable as GWC’s shooting nudes ?

Stay tuned for the next 20 years, or maybe only the next two, until my mid-life crisis hits, I go completely insane, become a crazy religious nut/ dominatrix porn star, and run off with a 22 year old model…..

Another image of Linx, this time clothed (shock, horror), in a some-what clichéd Jordan-esque pose

Digital workflow?

This subject seems to keep some photographers up at night wondering if they are doing it right. So I thought I describe my workflow from start to end.

1. Shoot pictures
   Actually this is the hardest part, forget skin retouching, print matching etc. It's all about the light and the model. If it comes together you get great stuff if, if you screw it up the rest is almost pointless.
   
2. Download images from flash to computer
   Well this is a simple bit, but takes forever. In a 2 hour shoot I’ll usually get through 4GB of images. This takes about 30 minutes to copy over but doesn’t need any intervention.
   
3. Set the RAW conversion
   Take a look over the images, select them all in Adobe Bridge and set the correct white balance, contrast and brightness. This is usually just resetting them to those in the camera. I then store all the settings and begin to go through and decide which make the first pass.
   
4. Batch convert
   Take the first pass images and batch convert them to pdf and apply my preferred BW conversion routing. This creates a new folder with the PDF files in so they are ready to go. If I want any to be in colour I will remove the BW conversion later. Everything is stored as layers from here on in so at any time I can switch between colour and BW. The conversion is done to 16bit PDF which are large but make the most of the 14bits in the sensor. It also means that, if I apply a curves change or similar effect, the results look better due to the extra bit depth available.
   
5. Dust bunnies
   I now open the files and correct and dust bunnies from the sensor or backdrop imperfections.
   
6. Retouching
   If the images require retouching I will open them up and perform my ‘brand’ of retouch. I don’t like plastic skin so I never use blurs and I avoid it if I can.
   
7. Final selection
   I now make my final selections for print and upload. I work with the full size files with all their layers and have a custom java-script to convert them to the correct sizes for my web. I also add a copyright logo to the web images.

So this is my workflow. Its probably not perfect but it does what I need.

Thats too dry a topic, we need to lighten it up.

Some advice for models; please don't use spray tan before a shoot. You may not know it but under flash lighting it turns bright ORANGE and you will look like the Orange Tango woman. It takes a lot of photoshop to fix (or conversion to B&W) and doesn't look that great.

I nearly forgot to post an image.. What shall it be. How about the gorgeous Lee

High Noon at the Camera Club!

A few months ago I decided that it would be nice to show my art nude pictures at my local camera club. Rather than just going in and taking the photos I decided to ask the club committee if they thought there would be a problem. So I sent in an email with my URL and asked them to have look.

At the next meeting I spoke to some of them at the start and they said that while they didn’t have any objection, the hall that they rented had specified in the lease that there should be no nude images shown and therefore I could not show them.

While I was a little put out by this it was not their fault and so I felt it was not really a problem but would limit the work I could show.

However, at the end of the meeting the chairman stood up and effectively called a meeting of the club. While not mentioning me by name, but staring at me, he said that someone had asked if they could show nudes and gave the reason why they could not. By then it was obvious to anyone looking at him that he was talking about me.
At that point it descended into an inquisition as to why I had to shoot “that kind of picture”. To cut a long story short the club decided that implied nude was ok. I was however, furious at being bush whacked in such a manner and being forced without any warning to justify my art.

I was seriously inclined to tell them where to stick their club.

A week later I decided to give them another chance and took along this picture of Kate with her hair hanging down. At the meeting the club membership was decidedly frosty to me, and even though I came third in the competition I was still not comfortable.

Last night I decided it was time for a showdown. I took two photos in, both of Linx. The B&W is one of the best I have taken and the A3+ print is outstanding. I was expecting it to be a disaster. I was very wrong. From the start many of the members came over and told me that they were glad I was staying and glad I was prepared to stand up for myself. Both male and female members told me they thought the photos were fantastic. The critiques given to my photos were gushing in their praise (which is very much appreciated) and forceful description that they were ART and could not possibly be seen as offensive. While the colour one didn’t rate particularly well, the B&W one won the B&W contest. I feel vindicated.





I dare say that not all the clubs members are happy at the outcome; some of them gave me rather grim looks afterwards. But, the majority gave me their backing and that is good enough for me. I will continue to show my work at the club while staying within the limits set, and I’m happy to be able to stay a member.

Have you got a big contract yet ?

This is a mini-rant about parents, friends, well-meaning random countrymen etc who steadfastly refuse to lend their ears to the purpose of fine-art photography. They simply do not understand why we do what we do.

Father-in-law, last weekend on the phone from fantastically hot and beautiful home villa in Spain (I’m not jealous, honest): “Have you got a big contract yet ?”

From alternative step-father-in-law in UK today: “Have you got a big contract yet ?”

From well-meaning friend two days ago: Have you earned any money yet ?

For heaven’s sake, what is their problem ?

Everyone thinks that the only reason Rich photographs naked women is:

a) Mid-life crisis
b) To make money.

Honestly, this is the only reason that they think that I "allow" him to do it.

O.K. I have news for all these people.

a) I don’t “allow” him to so anything. This is His Life, and he can live it the way He chooses, with my FULL support, and
b) Photographing nudes isn’t all about money. It’s about fun, art, creating beauty, more fun, brilliant outstanding work…..etc

They still don’t get it though. “Why do you stay with him if he does this?” they say.

“For God’s sake, it’s not as if I own the man”, I say. What is it with today’s society ? Do women own their spouses ? I love the beautiful Art he produces. He doesn’t have to compensate me for photographing naked women. I am proud to publish and display his images. They are beautiful.

The most common comment, from mother-in-law today: “But why do you do it ? I just don’t understand why you let him ?”

I DO NOT OWN MY HUSBAND. HE IS AN INDIVIDUAL PERSON.

Besides, his photography (and my new modelling career) has honestly made our relationship the best we’ve been in 20 years. It has done wonders for our friendship and our relationship. We have a new life, and we are very happy, thanks.

Obviously if we get a large wodge of money from Harpers and Queen or Vanity Fair, I’m not about to turn it down. But frankly the money is irrelevant. Who would think that making art would make two people so happy ?

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A shot of Linx from this weeks shoot.

Perspective

We had the most fabulous shoot yesterday, with a truly beautiful model. I get to scout for and book the models, which is amazing fun because you get to email and eventually meet some really cool people. Plus models in general appear to be happier dealing with a woman (and spouse) initially – makes them less worried about being photographed by some creepy GWC.

Anyway, my dearest Linx, thank you so much for yesterday. It was lovely to meet you, and you truly are a beautiful model. And so professional. The pictures came out looking fantastic. They really rocked.

I was proud (of Rich) and incredibly envious (of the beautiful Linx) in equal amounts. She had a body that I’d gladly kill for, and I really liked her. Such fun to work with! All in all, a really successful shoot.

Apart from one thing.

After seeing someone with such physical perfection, I never wanted to be photographed again. I had booked the most beautiful woman that I could find, partly because Rich deserves it (he’s having a shitty time at work) and partly because I thought I could easily handle the jealousy/envy issue, as we’ve had several shoots with no dodgy feelings on my part at all.

I was wrong. I failed dismally.

After the shoot, and after seeing the beautiful pictures, I fell apart totally. Back to square one.

It didn’t help that I’d been privately practising a kneeling pose for several weeks (unbeknown to Rich), which is harder than it looks (I’m nearly 40, I got cramp). It had kind of become “my pose”, something very personal to me, and something I was really proud of. Rich shot me in that pose last week, but hadn’t finished the image yet (still in post-processing). During yesterday’s shot, he shot the lovely lady in that pose. Needless to say, I was devastated. Needless to say, her pictures of that pose are better. 21 year old ass looks a lot better than 40 year old ass, let me tell you.

At that point, I never wanted to be photographed again. I mentally quit as model, muse and blog-writer. I decided to get breast implants and facial surgery. I cried, you know, the usual stuff. Pathetic but predictable.

But then life has a funny way of reminding you what’s important. Two things happened. My 8 year old, seeing I was upset, drew me a beautiful picture of me, saying “I love you Mummy”, to make me feel better. And then checking my favourite blogs over a morning cup of fine camomile tea, I discovered that one of my favourite blog writers (an inspiring and beautiful lady and extremely talented writer), has been diagnosed with cancer. She is going through unimaginable hell, and still kicking ass. And it brought it all back. My brain cancer from 6 years ago, the hell I went through, my fight to beat it and my resulting facial disfigurement. And 6 years ago I came out of it a stronger and better person. Now I’m nearly 40, with a beautiful daughter that the doctors said I could never have, and a new career as a fine art-nude model (old and sagging fine art-nude model, but life’s too short not to seize the day).

Perspective is a wonderful thing. Yes I will never look like the young and lovely Linxie, but I am still beautiful dammit, and as long as folks want to take pictures of me, you can count me in.

Without further ado, here is the pose which caused so much contention. And yes, that’s the beautiful Linx, not me (my version was far too rude).

Desktop

I was looking though the shots I took of Lee and realised there were some rather nice ones I had not looked at too carefully. I have converted one of them to a desktop wallpaper and I think it makes a stunning desktop.

Just click the image to download a copy at 1280x1024.



Enjoy.

Secret Lives

Do semi-professional photographers and part-time models have secret lives ?
Do we keep the type of photography we do a secret from the everyday folks we mix with at work, and do we keep our everyday personas secret from the photographic community on the blogs and MM ? Which persona is the “real self”, the everyday work self, or the photographer/art-nude model self ?
Are they both different masks we try on, or are they two parts of the same whole, and neither is complete without the other ?

From what I can see, authors of art-nude blogs mostly don’t give away what their day jobs are. Apart from the full-time professional photographers, the vast majority in our art-nude bloggie community have other day-jobs. Many appear to be highly educated (usually to degree level or beyond) and often seem to have their own company, or work in the computer or technical service industries (both of which we do).
Some photographers are living secret lives, often in the real world where sometimes you can’t publicise what you do photographically because art-nudes are not socially acceptable. But on a blog, a photographer (or model) can express something of his or her true nature and inner emotion, both via the blog writing and the exploration of beauty through the photographs themselves. Such is the nature of the Blog.

So which is the real self ? You have your blog persona, where you can be whomsoever you want to be, and you have the real world where you can hide your secret self until later, where you can escape to the imaginary world of the secret blog, and explore your alternative persona.

Makes bloggers sound creepy doesn’t it ? But secrets are rife in amateur and semi-pro photographers. One of our first models (who was a professional art-nude model who had been doing this for years) told us that this was the first shoot she had ever done where the wife knew what the photographer husband was doing. No wonder she went as white as a sheet when I walked in during a shoot, bearing tea and pizza. Apparently she thought Rich was doing this in secret, and thought I was about to assault her with the pizza cutter !
This secrecy from your spouse is apparently extremely common. Great relationships these photographers must have, if they can’t even tell their partners.

I applaud the honesty of photographers and models who tell the whole world what they do, no matter where they work, and despite potential objections of their partners.
But to a large extent, I’m guilty of the same type of secrecy. I do tell my friends what we do, but tend to get nebulous if asked by my son’s teachers at school.
I wouldn’t let my mother-in-law read this blog, although I believe my father-in-law reads it (they’re divorced, so no risk of her looking over his shoulder). Also I’d be kicked out of my professional accountancy organisation if they knew my “alter ego”, and I’m not about to give up those 10 years of sweat and blood which it took to get the qualification in the first place.

Richard has also had his share of secrecy. I used to call him a schizophrenic photographer. He used to shoot one set of normal everyday images (landscapes, wildlife, dragonflies, caterpillars etc) for taking to the local camera club evenings, and then shoot art-nude models “on the quiet”. Eventually the strain and hypocrisy of the double photography became too much, and the passion for art-nude photography took over, and pushed out the meaningless, art-less images that he took just to be accepted by the local camera club, who are lovely people, but very morally righteous, if you know what I mean.
The strain of multiple personalities became too much and he eventually “came out” in what became “The Grand Camera Club Inquisition”. I’ll leave that story for him. Suffice to say, he’s been forbidden from showing his work there. Still at least that persona bit the dust. He’s only ever been any good at being honest and true to himself. We are both rebels and loners by nature. Traits of the entire art-nude community, methinks.
We all keep secrets. We all wear different masks. I’m not sure which label fits me any more. I am an accountant and financial director by day, and art-nude model and muse by night.
All are parts of the greater “whole”, but I have to show these personalities at different times. You all do this, to some extent.
But you run the danger of losing your “real self” in the process :

I caught him photographing caterpillars in the garden yesterday.

The trouble with photoSig.

photoSig is a great place. You open an account, post up your images and the get critiques on how you could improve your shots. There are some outstanding photographers there, so you can view their work and see what comments other people made. At face value it all works as planned, there are some things that I find troubling though.

The first issue is with crit police “CP”. There are a number of individuals who have decided that there should be a ratio of 3 critiques to 1 photo post. If you don’t meet that requirement they will post a negative critique (or a comment) telling you that they won’t critique you and you should post more critiques. Now, I have had some critiques posted to my images by people who wanted to get their crit ratio up but clearly didn’t know their ISO from their f-stop and barely bothered to look at the image at all. So their “critiques” were pointless. Thus trouble 1 is that the system encourages those who know nothing to make useless observations. There is also a trivial way to deal with the CP, make a bunch of critiques, then delete your images periodically to maintain your ratio. This however is frowned upon, because deleting an image also deletes the critiques from it and thus the crit ratio of the posters goes down. Hence, if everyone deleted all but a few of their images, practically no one would be able to maintain their crit ratio. Personally I choose to delete my old images, not to maintain my crit ratio (although it helps), but because I don’t want my old images out there when I have new, hopefully better ones, to show.

The second issue is directly tied into nudes. The site makes big that it’s about photography BUT that’s a half truth. I have a suspicion that most of the people who crit nudes don’t look at them because of the composition and lighting but because they want to see some young tits-n-ass. Take my last 3 nudes, of the critiques received 5 posters had a least 1 nude in their portfolio while 12 didn’t have anything remotely like studio work or nudes (landscapes, snapshots of the kids, birds, etc). Now while I appreciate that everyone has an opinion how can someone who doesn’t shoot nudes and doesn’t use a studio honestly give me advice of how to improve my studio technique. It’s nice to get a good rating but the point of posting is supposed to be to learn. The critiques often are meaningless as well.


I posted two similar images but the models were of different ages,
one of Siren Song and one of Cheeky Lee.

The pose is similar and the lighting is almost the same. No prizes for guessing that the one of Lee got a much higher rating and more views than Siren Song. This I feel is the main flaw in the photoSig site. Ultimately, I feel they are critiquing the model and not the photo. Both women are beautiful, just one is a bit younger than the other.

The last issue I have is with the comments some people make.
“Nudes look better if their nipples are perky to stand out more!”
“I don’t like nipple rings! It would be better if she didn’t have a nipple ring!”
“I don’t like tattoos! It would be better if she didn’t have tattoos!”
“It would be better with a younger model”
“You shouldn’t use side lighting and dark shadows, more even front lighting would be more glamorous!”

How can you make a comment on a photograph that basically says that it would have been better if you photographed something different.

OMG this turned into bit of a rant!

Not everything is bad though. When I started posting to photoSig I set one of my goals as to having an image on the front page. This week I did it with the image of Lee. So thank you Lee, and thank you all those who gave the photo of Lee a high rating. Although I am assuming that they were rating my photo and not just the drool factor of Lee.

He Shot a Dead Old Model

Some of the alt-photographers and models out there spend large amounts of time preparing and shooting scenarios where the model looks dead. She may be covered in blood (tacky, tacky, tacky, and I don’t just mean literally), or often goth/gore pictures, possibly involving bondage and ropes (just SO last season!)

In his very early days, Richard has even been known to do the odd vampire shot, but it was actually quite cute, I think, rather than scary. No blood or gore at all –he’s just too fluffy a photographer for that (although he’ll kill me for saying so).


Here is the lovely Jenvy, complete with cutsy fangs. Note, I am especially proud of Richard’s makeup job here. The model’s makeup is not natural – it is entirely done afterwards by the Man Himself using Photoshop.

So, vampires aside, how can you actually create a natural art-nude style shot where the model looks authentically dead ?
The answer: Quite by accident, so it seems.

The two pictures below are of yours truly, taken a couple of months ago. After reviewing the pictures, we thought they were quite nice, so Rich submitted them for critique at Photosig.




The first comment we had was that in the first picture, that the model looked quite dead.

A different commentator thought that in the second picture, the photographer was shooting an old model, and trying to make her look younger (which of course, he was ! But the truth hurts folks!)

At the time, I thought it was pretty funny, but Rich was very upset. The photos lasted less than 4 hours on Photosig before he pulled them.

It was a full 3 weeks before I plucked up the courage to go in front of the camera again, and I still haven’t let him photograph my boobs.

The moral of the story ? Be careful what critiques you ask for, especially when the model is the wife…..

And if any photographers out there are looking for oldy art-nude models in a natural yet authentically dead style, then please do feel free to contact me!

Fine Art Nudes, Fine Art Porn, or just Fine Art ?

Question: Is what we do classified as fine art, fine art nude, nudes, pornography or just plain Tits ‘n’ Ass ?
Answer: This is a purely subjective judgement by the viewer.

There has been an increasing trend by photographers who shoot “our style” of photography to classify their work as porn. “Our style” is generally classified as “fine art-nude” – we are a small but loyal and protective bunch. The art nude community tends to stick together.

The amazingly talented Marcus J Ranum often classifies his work on Photosig as “Fine Art Porn”. Melvin Moten has made a very interesting post about his work and Pornography on his Story Beneath the Skin blog. These are but two examples. There are many more blogs discussing this very point, and numerous threads on MM to this effect. Other photographers vehemently object to this sort of classification, while others simply choose to make no comment, and let the viewer make up their mind, believing the pictures speak for themselves.

The general public often seem to classify black and white nudes as “fine art”, and colour images as erotic nudes/porn. This is very simplistic, but unfortunately it’s often true.

The whole idea of classifying what these fine gentlemen do as “porn” strikes me as way too defensive, although the cynic will say that it may certainly increase their viewing figures. The fact is that photographers are coming under increasing pressure and criticisms that they “shoot porn”, as if this is something derogatory, offensive and degrading. Is this is a sociological malfunction by society, or maybe just a label. Under current political climates (US and UK) the move is towards religion and censorship and away from anything remotely “risqué” (as my father-in-law puts it). The current government in the US apparently will not use public funding to sponsor nude art in any form. As I understand it, Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs of black penises did not go down so well. This is political. The world is in the middle of a political and spiritual crisis. Under this current climate, the move is towards censorship, particularly attempts to censor the internet. Hell, our government would censor your thoughts if it could..
Photographers are forced on the defensive. They have to justify what they do as art, rather than porn. Much of our blog is arguing this very thing, and about how we cope with the reactions and prejudices of friends and family.

So the argument goes that if the photographer defines what he does as “porn” or “fine art porn” up front, then this gives him more leeway to be free to shoot whatever he wants, free of criticism. So this takes away the need to be defensive, and takes away the power of the viewer to criticise his work as “pervy” or “porn. Viewers of this nature are making an exact moral judgement on the personality of the photographer (as if it is any of their business anyway)

“If I say “I shoot pornography”, then so what ?”

Hey, I get this. I understand why photographers say this. Like us, they are sick of having to defend their work, and cope with other folks’ hang-ups. But how does this translate to the real world ?

Picture Richard and myself at our son’s parents evening at his posh private school. The headmaster saunters up for a chat “So what do you do Mr Bang?”
“I’m a photographer”
“Gosh, how interesting. What type of photography do you do ?”
“Oh, mainly porn. How else do you think we can afford your extortionate school fees ?”

Hmm. Anyway, all I can say is that if what we do is classified by the general public as porn rather than art, then we are clearly doing something wrong, because it sure doesn’t pay very well (No alas we don’t fund the school fees from the photography proceeds. The day job pays for that)

Personally I’d rather stick with the “fine art nude” label, thanks, or maybe at a push “erotic art”. Sounds better when you tell people what you do, and it doesn’t put off every potential model from shooting with you. But it is the reaction of the viewer that defines the label. The images reflect more about the personality of the viewer than the photographer.

So, art or porn ?

Whatever you want it to be!