Is it art?

There was a recent thread on a forum on the nature of what is art photography and whether photography, which is largely a technical craft, can be art. This started me thinking about something that I have long felt was in some ways similar, the art of writing computer software.

Now on the face of it you might think that computer software has nothing to do with art, it’s a completely technical exercise and anyone with training can do it, which is the same argument that is made for photography.

There are many programmers in the world and I have met quite a few. There are those that have excellent qualifications in it and know multiple languages can produce fantastic plans and design diagrams and then there are those who have an innate ability to just see the code.

If you see the code produced by the first set, it is sometimes well constructed, orderly and functional and sometimes messy, jumbled and hard to read.

The code produced by the second set is uniquely beautiful. It will be well composed, elegant, and easy to read. It will mesh with other sections of code with grace and will almost always be faster and have fewer errors than that produced by the first set.

The second set is known in the programming world as hackers. This is different from the term used to represent someone who breaks into computers and causes damage. A code hacker is someone whose abilities to generate code is not restricted by the mechanism used to create the code. They take the components of the code and create something that non-hackers are often amazed at.

All programmers want to be hackers. Those that don’t are those that, due to their lack of vision, feel the need to organise and plan and create diagrams. To them code is code and that’s how you create it and there is no art in it, its all technique.

Photography is similar. There are many who have fantastic photographic technique but their photographs have no soul. They judge the photos of others not on an artistic merit but on exposure and the ability to follow compositional rules. They almost photograph to a project plan. They start a shoot with a plan, they know what photos they are going to take and they take them. If there photos are correctly exposed and follow good composition rules then they have succeeded in their aim.

The artist takes a more free form approach. Composition and exposure are important but not critical. Things can go in a different way to the plan but the results will be good because they are flexible and have an inner vision that can guide them.


The thing is that with both photography and software you can’t teach art. I have read code from some very good programmers that was dull, lifeless, often inefficient and functional. I have seen photographs from photographers that are well exposed and well composed but dull and lifeless.

The art is build upon the craft and not all craftsmen are artists.

I believe am a hacker and a photographic artist.

The image for this post is Kate, I’ll let you decide if its art

I Quit …

…. the camera club.

While there were some members of the club that liked my work and were friendly, the majority didn’t want me there. There had even been complaints about last week’s photograph of Holly and Lance!

So I returned the cup I won last year and took my leave.

One person said that I should not leave and I should give the rest of the club time and that he was sick of all the damn sunsets and buildings. However, I don’t see why I should run the gauntlet for the benefit of ‘educating’ the other members.

The vice chairman seemed rather relieved I was going and so in the end I think its best for me.

It does leave me with a quandary though. Being self employed and not having any staff and not fitting into the “Dinner party” crowd, means that I now officially have no social life. I’ll be spending more time on MM I guess.

“Oh how we must suffer for our art”

On the other hand, it’s hard to complain when I have the full support of Lin and I get to create images like this with the beautiful Lynx?

Bits 'n' Bobs

Alas not much is happening in our little UK photographic world. We were due to do a shoot last weekend, but that has been cancelled because Rich has a cold and is feeling wretched. You know how pathetic men are when they are poorly!

The kids are on half term for the next week, which also puts paid to anything to do with nude or erotic photography. It is impossible to shoot when you are entertaining three little ones.

Rich hasn’t decided whether or not he’s going back to camera club. As usual he’s keeping me in suspense until the last possible minute. He can’t quite make up his mind yet. I wish I could just tell him to quit the bloody club, as it’s caused him so much heartache, but he really does have to decide this for himself.
He did go to a studio evening at a different camera club last week as well, to check them out, which was promising because at least they are not prudish and will let him show his work there. Plus they had a real genuinely live model there – clothed though (bummer!) But unfortunately they were not open to accepting advice on
shooting in a studio, so I don’t think he had a very inspiring evening there either.
Plus the Little Darling (our nick-name for the two year old daughter) was NOT happy at her Daddy being out in the evening twice in the space of three days and threw an almighty tantrum on the following day!

I’ve spent a few days studying the fascinating world of Melvin Moten, re-reading his blog The Story Beneath the Skin, reading his reviews (for example The New Nude) looking at his images, generally just drinking in his personality and talent. Amazing stuff. Such raw emotion and sensuality. Such psychological depth reflected in his work. He has such incredibly wide limits on what she shoots, and the world in which he lives is so completely strange to me, but nonetheless fascinating. Six months ago his work was way outside my personal comfort zone, and I found some of his images too sexually disturbing for me personally. But what a difference six months makes! I understand his work now. It speaks to me. I’d certainly love him to shoot me, and I’m sure this will happen one day.

No other significant news really in the world of art-nude blogging, apart from the startling fact that one of our most inpirational nude photographers D. Brian Nelson is thinking of quitting nude photography and shooting urban cityscapes instead. Completely understandable, but sad for the rest of us who follow the Hotel Room Nudes story. Follow your inner-inspiration Don but we hope you still keep blogging. Urban cityscapes will be fascinating (for me at least) but I’d certainly miss your writing if you stopped your blog……

Mmm. I feel like a colour image tonight. Here is the dancer Kate. Incidentally she was featured in the New Nude this month, photographed not by Rich (alas) but by Andrew Or.
Rich really needs to shoot her again, with his updated equipment and a decent backdrop this time. Ah, the lurid purple back drop…fond memories. Yes it really is as uncomfortable to pose on as it looks.

Whatever floats your boat

“I have absolutely no idea what you think you are doing”.

So sayeth Rich just now, after I finally concluded two week’s research on fetish photography and modelling.

Now I don’t do something by half. Once I decide to learn something, I research it as completely as possible, to the point of obsession. Rich does this too – we have this in common.

Two weeks aren’t remotely enough to get a handle on the whole fetish scene, but it certainly gives you a flavour, or “flava” to pick up on way too much groovy lingo I’ve been reading recently.

So I have been reading all sorts of highly peculiar web sites, and have visited the bowels of the internet (in some cases literally I’m afraid). Lots of Skin Two and Marquis magazines, varying dubious contact magazines and some really way-out web sites where I hope I never ever go again.

I have seen some “extreme” S&M stuff which has really been an education. Boobs that look painful because of their size and which much need a crane to lift (nearly literally). Whipping posts, wolf costumes, men on leads and men stuffed in giant rubber balls. And much much worse. Not my scene, alas. Although the autobiography of Mistress Chloe was strangely fascinating. And the Skin Two ball does look fun (next year though. I’ve missed it this time round), although I must confess that London Fashion week looks a helluva lot more appealing.

My conclusion is: I really do like girly fetish fashion and glossy fetish photographs. I am a closet designer-fashion junkie anyway, so I’m looking forward to purchasing some extravagant and shiny outfits.
Latex and rubber could definitely be a lot of fun in particular. Think Bianca Beauchamp (in my dreams) or Girl Armour .
I’ve been spending way too time looking for my potential Christmas presents outfits on Honour online shop and have spent the last month trying to get some very shiny 7 inch fetish shoes out of someone called Precious Hymen on Ebay (apparently they are in the post, but I’ve been trying to get them for a month now, so don’t hold your breath)

But I have overdone the research thing. So much so this morning that I felt vaguely nauseous after ending up in some sort of cyber-dungeon in Watford which had tools and machines the like of which I’ve never imagined (and I have a pretty vivid imagination, I can tell you). Anyway, I can hire the dungeon for £40 an hour, should Rich and I ever need to spice up our marriage. And there’s a seaside hotel in Blackpool that offers steel clips, hot wax, leather hood and ropes as part of the introductory dungeon package, as well as offering courses in teaching burlesque pyrotica. Nice to know, really. I always wanted to be a Mistress of Fire.

Rich has commented that he’s really not into the sexual aspect of the S&M thing, and that he doesn’t get the whole fetish lifestyle scene, but he really does want to photograph some cool fetish fashion. Mercifully this appears to be the limit of his interest, for which I’m grateful at the moment. I have seen enough strap-on dildos, butt plugs, men in dog collars and blow-up pink pig outfits to last a lifetime.

But definitely enough research for now. Time to run screaming to the sanctuary of my comfy bear zone. Here’s a nice reassuring picture of a gloriously normal art-nude. The model is Claire-Louisa.
Apparently this is a submissive pose (according to various fine-art nude web sites I’ve visited recently), but I don’t see it. She just looks pretty to me.

Show me some love … or Go to Hell !

I’ve often seen forum users ask others to “show me some love”. I always thought is was kind of a strange request but I think that after yesterday I understand why sometimes people make such a request.

Last night was yet another Camera Club night (I can hear the groans already). It didn’t go so well. The two pictures here are the ones I took with me so you can see what shocking images I presented! My apologies if you have seen them already.

The format of the evening was very simple. Everyone goes along and takes a couple of prints. They hand out some slips and each person writes down which ones they think are best in order of 1, 2, 3. While we all walked round looking at the prints there was a general social chat time where we could catch up on what we’ve been doing recently. Or at least that’s what everyone else did.

I was one of the first to arrive and, after helping with tables and chairs, put my prints out. It’s pretty obvious to everyone which ones are my prints as I’m the only one who shoots in the studio. So I put out my prints and prepared to join the chat. But it didn’t quite go to plan. The other members arrived, said “Hi” and then looked at what prints I had brought in. At that point I started to become a social leper. I must have needed a shower as a space seemed to form around me, like the shield of that Starship Enterprise. People would walk past and turn their heads away or move on as I approached. I was well and truly stonewalled. A few people exchanged the basic pleasantries but by the time the voting period was over, I had got to the point where I was just sitting by myself.


There was, I think, ten black and white prints and I can honestly say that I think that only 3 or 4 people actually looked at my prints, most made a point of just walking past.

Let me tell you that at that point I was not feeling any love.

After the voting is over we all sat down and they discussed club events. There is another workshop evening coming up and they had asked me to do a Photoshop evening, to which I had agreed. The chairman asked the club what they would like and they could not decide whether they would like a Photoshop evening, run by yours truly, or a portrait studio session, again, run by yours truly. Basically, they would have liked me to do both while no-one else would volunteer to do anything on the evening. So here we have a bunch of people who spend most of their time stonewalling me because I shoot nudes and yet fall over them-selves for me to run a training evening for them.

By now, I was not feeling any love, but I was feeling just a tad exploited.

Two of the most experienced photographers of the club began to discuss the prints, making helpful comments and critiques to help people develop their skills. When they reached mine they were very nice and said what great prints they were and they could not find any faults in them. It’s very nice of them, but I don’t learn anything that way. It doesn’t help to be told that I really should go Pro and it just serves to piss off the other members.

I was not surprised that neither of my prints placed. Out of a total of about 50 prints there were 3 described as technically and artistically perfect and I had two of them. But at least the other didn’t win either.

To be honest, I don’t expect to win because most of the club members are not photographically sophisticated so they can’t tell a mistake from a practiced technique and thus, tend to vote for pretty landscapes. Also, I didn’t expect to win because I thought the subject matter of my photographs would be outside their comfy bear zone. Boy was I right.

Come the end of the night and only one person said goodnight to me as I left.

I was feeling pretty rejected at this point of the evening.

So I am now contemplating ingenious ways in which to tell the club to go to hell and what they can do when they get there.

The funny thing is that since I started showing people my photographs pretty much everyone has at some time told me that the pictures I take are beautiful but then they treated my like a leper for having taken them. Friends and my parents are not happy with me, the club is not happy with me, it seems the world is not happy with me.

Maybe I am just being naive and this is simply what happens to all those who photograph nudes and have the balls to admit to it. It’s certainly going to get worse when I photograph women in latex body suits! Am I just catching on to what all the other photographers have been through? Is choosing this as my art a one way trip to solitude?

If that’s the case, all I can say to the world is:

“Show me some love, or Go to hell. I’m going to do this my way and you can like it or lump it!”

The right tools for the job.

As a pastime I enjoy carpentry. I'm supposedly quite good at it. One thing you learn in carpentry is that each tool has a specific job. For example, a router is great for edging material with rebates or patterns, etc, while a miter saw is great for cutting larger material across grain in a controlled manner. If you asked me to cut the legs of a table I would choose the miter saw. If you asked me to rebate the edge of wood I would choose a router. I would not cut table legs with a router or cut rebates with a miter saw. Similarly, if you were to show a carpenter a piece of furniture and ask him if he could create it, he would not start by asking what tools the original was made with.

What has this to do with photography? Well, often in online forums and other blogs I see people that put the equipment before the image or assume that their list of equipment is the right equipment.

For example, there are often questions in the forums in the form of "I want to take some photographs, what do I need?" Well the trite answer is a camera, but the true answer is that unless you specify what you want to photograph the question is meaningless. A fashion photographer will not choose a 300mm lense or a Holga.

The point I'm trying to make is that as photographers, like carpenters, we should look at the image we want to create and then choose the equipment we want to achieve those results.

Don, over at Hotel Room Nudes, is a master of his genre. He has perfected his use of equipment, film and lense and takes awesome images. However, if I had to shoot in a hotel room I would not ask Don how I should do it. Don does it his way, I would do it my way and choose the equipment I needed to create the look I wanted. My images would not look like his and I would to want them to, I want to create my own style, not duplicate someone else’s.

This does not mean that you don’t need to understand how the tools work, I know how each piece of my carpentry tool set it used as well as my photography tools, but the tool should not define the image. The photographer should define the image and choose the appropriate tools for the job.

So the next time someone asks what equipment they should get, ask them what they want to photograph and how they want it to look, then the answer will have some meaning.

This is one reason why I never list my equipment for a shot. I could list all the equipment in the world, but unless you know how to use it to get that type of shot you want it would be a waste.

The photo for this entry features HolliB, Lance and Bump. It was shot in my studio, with a digital camera and some lights.

Finishing is less fun than shooting!

The worst part of being a photographer is finishing the images, especially when you realise that each and every shot has the same mark on the backdrop, which only shows up under flash, and you have to fix every shot in Photoshop.

This has made me reluctant to actually finish my photos. However, this week I decided to bit the bullet and finish them off. So now I have a lot of finished images stored on the server ready to be used in the blog and shown on the site.

I have modified the database to allow me to index by category and model name. The next step is to modify the site to reflect these changes.

I have also fixed all the typos in the URL's of old images and fixed the script I use to generate them.

Here is a recently finished shot of Claire-Louisa to decorate this post.

Life’s Answers are in your Spam Folder

I was reading a Christian book recently loaned to me by a very devout friend (long story, but basically it made me feel totally Ned Flanders and put me off Christianity for the foreseeable future) in which the hero had his questions about life answered by thinking of a question in his mind and then dipping into the Bible at a random page to see the answer. He believed this was a method of prayer, whereby God answered his questions.

I have come across this phenomena many times. You put out a question to the Cosmos in your mind, and then pick up any book or magazine and open it at random, and what you see is the answer to your question. Supposedly.

A long time friend (a devout monk) uses this as a method of prayer. He says this works in other areas too. The cosmos speaks to us all the time, you just have to look around you and recognise the signs.
My mother in law (a spiritualist and powerful clairvoyant) calls it “Signs from Spirit” and won’t make any daily decision, no matter how small, without “asking Spirit for a Sign”.

No doubt by now you’ll all be thinking I’m surrounded by religious lunatics, and you’d be right about that. It’s a miracle I’m still sane really (no comments, thank you Rich)

An article I was reading last week called it an “Olive moment” where the author concerned did an experiment and thought up a question about something really silly, say about marinating olives. Sure enough, everywhere she looked for a couple of days afterwards there were signs of olives….in magazines, posters, on TV. from people in the street….bizarre connections for which she had no explanation.

So is this a sign from the cosmos, God or just plain junk ? Does your mind create the reality around it ? Are the so-called signs actually created by the subconscious mind, i.e. do we create our own reality ? Or does the subconscious merely recognise and latch onto any meaning, however slight, in the vast jumble of rubbish around us.

Basically, is this a load of garbage, or does the garbage around us contain actual answer to our subconscious questions ? Sort of like a study-aid or therapy session to assist with our problems.

Anyway, I decided to conduct an experiment of my own. The burning question in my life at the moment is: “Should I quit chartered accountancy and do something else with my life ? What is best for my career, and what would make me happiest ? O.K. these are actually three questions, but part of the same problem, and the theory should work as well for three as it would for one.

In case you are wondering why I want to quit being a chartered accountant, let’s just say I am jaded and disillusioned with the profession, plus the constant continuing professional development studying is a nightmare, plus my heart’s not in it at all. This is an understatement. Don’t get me started. On the other hand, quitting a profession like this means throwing away 8 years of studying to get qualified, plus all the sweat, blood and tears contained therein. Plus being an accountant is a handy method of getting an alternative job, should I ever have to get one. Equal arguments for and against.

Anyway, having laid out my question/dilemma/random thought to the Great Beyond in some detail, back to the experiment.

O.K. Let’s pick something daft to look in for the answer. Something very random, like my Spam folder in Outlook, where all the maybe-spam garbage emails automatically go for later checking, in case there is something relevant in there that was wrongly tagged as spam. And let’s be even more specific, as I have no intention if reading thousands of spam messages. Let’s only look for the answers to my life’s dilemma in the Subject Lines of the spam messages. And let’s just look at 8 hours worth of spam, and strictly consider every message in reverse order, no cheating. Can’t get more of a challenge really.

So Far, discounting Chinese spam which I can’t read anyway, I have:

IT. Trial
New News
My dear
Stop being Unhappy
Pursue college study while you work
Enjoy the new
Have you ever wished to have
You crave to shoot like a film star
Equal numbers boys
Feel strong
Panel Saw

Hmm. Not sure about the panel saw bit, but as for the rest, pretty damn accurate wouldn’t you say ? Indeed I am conducting a sort of I.T. Trial, and, actually I crave to shoot like Bianca Beauchamp rather than a film star. “Equal numbers boys” it’s a 50:50 choice about quitting accountancy and studying something else while I work.

So that’s no answer at all really, but it’s certainly bizarre that my current situation should be reflected in such a narrow test. And I didn’t miss any messages out, I swear.

Does the Cosmos speak? Or does the subconscious interpret meaning in garbage however random ?

From this rambling, I conclude that I got up waaay too early this morning (another bout of insomnia) and that I really should keep my night-time ramblings to myself….


Richard has been on a bender of finishing off loads of photos this week, so we have many to show you. So here is a picture of gorgeous Cheeky Lee. You deserve a beautiful naked woman after reading this.

Film! Whats that then?

I was at the beach yesterday, photographing the children building sand castles. After I've taken some shots they like to come over and review the images. I shot several frames with a digital camera and then switched to film. After the shots the conversation went like this:
"Can I see the images"
"No, I'm sorry you can't"
"Why not?"
"You cant see the images with this camera because it shoots film."
"Film! Whats that then?"

I think I shoot digital too much!

Now, can anyone tell me what am I supposed to do with that little canister thing in the back of the camera again?

This is another (digital) shot of the wonderful Lynx.

The Maternity Shoot

Rich has always wanted to do a maternity shoot, so last week we were delighted to welcome the stunning Holli B and her partner Lance (also a photographer) for a delightful shoot.

These are genuinely really nice people and the time just flew by. Holli was 7 months pregnant, and to be honest, she is braver than I was, because there’s no way I’d have travelled three hours for a shoot during any stage of my pregnancies, let alone in the third trimester.

Rich described this shoot as one of the best he’s done. The pictures came out beautifully, and there was a lot of real emotion visible in the images, particularly when Holli and Lance were looking at each other (real mushy!)

Some photographers would shy away from shooting pregnant nudes (or nearly nude), on the basis that they aren’t very attractive, sexually or otherwise. Rich thinks they are gorgeous (I agree), so we have been looking for some time for a model (with partner) for a maternity shoot. After many months of following up leads and fruitless attempts at persuading lovely ladies to pose for us, Holli (+ bump) was our first pregnant model, but definitely not our last.

Why is it that most models retire from modelling for nine months as soon as they become “with child” ? Having asked several, they said that they weren’t “commercially desirable” and they didn’t feel attractive, sexually or otherwise.

Why the hell not ? That’s what I want to know.

When I was pregnant my sex life was utterly fabulous. All those hormones and chocolate ! Granted the first few months aren’t so great (morning sickness is not an erotic experience) but after that, I discovered a whole new side of me.

I am always angry with the fact that our society behaves as though pregnant women are not allowed to be perceived as sexual beings.

To quote Laura Shanley

Strangely enough, however, pregnant women are often looked upon as asexual. Maternity clothes are generally designed to hide a woman's figure, rather than accentuate it. Tops are more apt to have Peter Pan collars than swooping necklines. Although the very fact that a woman is pregnant means that she has had sex, society tends to view her as anything but sexual. It's as if she is suddenly expected to stop being a lover and start being a mother - and a virginal one at that.

The problem with this line of thinking is that first of all, it's no fun, and secondly, it's unhealthy both physically and psychologically. Having sex and feeling sexual are crucial to a woman's sense of well-being. Pregnant women need to know and be told how beautiful they are - because, in truth, they are. Pregnancy, birth, and breastfeeding are integral parts of a woman's sex life. Accepting this fact will make all of them more pleasurable.

Here is a picture of Holli, Lance and Bump. Many more to follow…..

Salaciousness

sa·la·cious (adj. )

1. Appealing to or stimulating sexual desire; lascivious.
2. Lustful; bawdy.

Rich has been using this word a lot recently, to describe other blogs and images rather than ours.

I have desperately searched through Rich’s photo-database searching for an image which fits this definition, particularly with regard to satisfying the “bawdy” part of the definition. “Bawdy” conjures up images of a Wife of Bath type personality, or Christina Aguilera’s Lady Marmalade video.

Oh dear. Clearly we do “fluffy” rather than “salacious” because I can’t find anything remotely lustful or bawdy.
Fine art nudes are definitely not bawdy by any stretch of the imagination. At least ours aren’t. Probably not even particularly sexually provocative either (although this will depend on the viewer's perspective, obviously)

Rich is also learning that my comfy bear zone is a moving feast. It changes practically on a daily basis. A month ago there’s no way I would have considered a mild bondage shoot. Today, I’m “yeah, whatever”. This confuses the poor chap dreadfully.
Clearly my abandoning studio fine-art nudes has resulted in an explosion of my creative thinking (or maybe life after 40 involves a large amount of perversion), but either way, I’m looking forward to exploring new ideas. No doubt some of them will be a total disaster both photographically and emotionally, but there’s no bloody point in doing this modelling unless it constantly challenges me and pushes my emotional boundaries. It will be interesting to see how it affects our relationship too.

God I hope my father-in-law isn’t reading this.

In the meantime, I am trying to work on ideas as to “what constitutes bawdy” ?

Here is the lovely Kate, in my best attempt to find something remotely sexually provocative. I think I would call it “nearly salacious” within the confines of definition 1 above. Clearly we need to work on the “bawdy".