I’m no photographer

“What’s the point of taking a photograph if you’re never going to show it to anyone?”

Rich

I often get asked by bloggie readers why I don’t show my own photographs here. The answer is because, unlike Rich, I take snaps, I don’t produce art. Some kind souls who have seen the best of my paltry photos have made vaguely encouraging noises (you’re all very nice people and Americans are SO incredibly polite, unless we’re talking about feminism that is) but referring to my very average snapshots as “art” is just plain nonsense.

There is a definite distinction between private snapshots made purely for pleasure and those photographs taken specifically to show to the general public. A snapshot is a private concern and may be a picture of the kids, the house, goofy grab shots, whatever, but once you photograph to produce something you want to specifically show to others, particularly to other photographers, then expectations will rise. Those who look at images on a dedicated photography blog will be specialists in their field. The majority of viewers will be photographers, some will be art models and some will be art collectors or critics. All come for the photographs, and should I ever show any of my terribly composed snaps then the universal reaction would be “That's lovely, Lin” with never a critical word, for fear that an honest review would upset me. As I said, Americans are so very nice, maddeningly so at times.

On photography blogs, certain standards are inherent. The pressure to be as good as your peers is intense. The truth is that only the best photographers (and therefore it follows that the best blogs) get noticed. Believe me, you wouldn’t come back here if I started posting badly composed cute cat and kiddie photos all the time (much as I love them.)

So that’s why you won’t be seeing any of my own photographs here. They are not Art. I don’t want them to be Art. I don’t even care that they’re not very good (although it would be nice if my composition improved) because I take them for my own personal fun.

Sorry Rich, but photography isn’t always about showing your work to other people. Sometimes photos are just too personal to show others. To me, they are my memories. They’re all about times in the past which have made me happy, and that is the only reason I take them. The day I start to see my photographs as “my work” will be the day I throw my camera in the trash.

Writing, on the other hand?

Ah. Well, that’s different, you see.

After all, what’s the point of writing if you never let anyone else read it?

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Clayre McKinnen

Masters of Kokoro

Before photography……there was budō.

Rich and I met 23 years ago in a dojo. We were inseparable from the very first minute I stuck my foot in his groin and flipped him over my head by his balls. I guess he liked my forthright personality and my…er…strong feet.

Anyhoo, we continued our studies of all things violent for many years thereafter, primarily judo and later moving onwards and upwards to karate and then aikido (think Steven Seagal in a very bad mood) and I only stopped ten years ago because I was expressly forbidden from contact sports after my head was carved up (my neurologist opinioned that break-falling on concrete wouldn’t be good for a woman with bits of her skull missing.) There’s not a day goes by that I don’t miss it.

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Clayre McKinnen

Martial arts are much more than fighting, hence the word budō which describes the Japanese philosophy and way of life. Aikido in particular encompasses not only physical but also spiritual and moral dimensions with a focus on self-improvement and personal enlightenment. It’s not all about beating the crap out of big scary guys, you know (although that certainly has its fun moments.)

In many ways Japanese martial arts are not so different from fine art nude photography. Many of the Japanese principles and philosophies overlap and permeate our own arty world. For example much of martial arts involves learning different poses. Putting ones body into a particular position or stance is thought to both discipline the mind and be a very good preparation of what is to follow. In many ways this is similar to fine art figure modeling where models often have to hold a pose for an extended length of time and remain absolutely still for as long as necessary. I don’t know about others, but when I pose I automatically fall into a state of calm mental focus, my mind is quiet, I am immersed in the moment and I am aware only of myself and the instructions of the photographer. It’s exactly the same as when I was in the dojo all those years ago.

Our training also explains why Rich is drawn to fine art nude photography, because that is the way he thinks. He has done martial arts all his life which means that his outlook on life is very calm and disciplined, and so his photography reflects the Japanese emphasis on form, on seeing the self from the outside. The studio in many ways is similar to the dojo, simple, unadorned, without distraction, so that the only focus is on the subject. The model poses are a form of kata, moving purposely, slowly, with focus and self-awareness, not unlike a kind of ritual. Pure precision, grace and mental readiness are emphasized. The whole message is not about the passions and emotions of an individual (portrait-style), it is on that single moment of mental quietness which is found within martial arts, not dissimilar to Zen Buddism which concentrates on the enlightened moment achieved when the intellect is emptied.

Now perhaps you see why Rich photographs the way he does? This is who he is and how he thinks. His creative vision will always strongly mirror his lifetime of being trained in the psychology of Kokoro-gamae. In Japanese "Kokoro" has a diffuse but beautiful meaning which can be translated as "heart," "spirit," "soul" or “mind.” In martial arts, Kokoro-gamae is therefore the posture of the heart and mind. It is “the intention and resolve produced by the heart, processed by the mind, and revealed in one's appearance, behavior, speech, and action.” It defines who we are.

IMO, kokoro is one of the most important principles in photography. The Masters of Photography might not have known what it was called, but they knew instinctively how to use it and how important it was.

To most of you reading this, photography is not about snapping pictures. It is our way of life. A truly successful photograph speaks not just from capturing a moment in time, but also from capturing the heart. Only if the photographer reflects what is within him, how he thinks, understands and feels, can the photograph be truly successful. As with kokoro, the heart and mind must be as one. When photography is truly at its best, it touches the soul, because it comes from the soul.

May we all be Masters of Kokoro one day.

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Roswell Ivory

The Grass is Always Greener

The UK sucks. We wanna emigrate. The credit crunch is making the British population miserable, the taxes are humungous and there is one surveillance camera for every fourteen people. Did you know that there is currently draft legislation that will result in the recording of every email, phone call and internet search in Britain? The information will be stored on giant server farms at an as-yet-undisclosed location. It may have taken a little longer than he predicted, but Orwell’s vision of a future where cameras and computers spy on every person’s movements is finally here.

So Canada it is then. Free healthcare and the land is cheap (note that everywhere is cheap compared to the UK) and Canadians are recruiting skilled workers, unfortunately only about 50,000 of them though. My guess is there are about 5 million of us who would like to go. The only problem with Canada, or in fact the US or Australia, is the healthcare issue. In order to qualify for entry, you have to be free of disease, and of course there’s the whole health-insurance issue in the US. What are the chances of me getting a job or health insurance anywhere? A snowball's chance in hell, I suspect. But even assuming we could get past the paperwork and get into the US (our preferred choice), then there is the thorny issue of what would happen to Rich’s photography.

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Some of you may well have noticed that there is a big difference between American and British nude photography. It’s primarily a difference in style, not dissimilar to the difference between American and English interior design. Contemporary American nude photography is…how do I put it?...more arty, more fashion orientated. It features more unique angles, trendy cropping techniques and it is more dramatic and emotional. I would moot that British nude photography is less hip and is actually more traditional in style (fellow British nude photographers, please feel free to send me hate-mail now.) American boobies have a whole different culture than British boobies. I’m not sure our own boobies would comfortably make the leap.

There’s also the effect that emigration has on the photographer’s psyche. Remember my thing about Paul Strand? Well, Strand loved America to distraction. His “Time In New England” reflected his passion for his country and the people he loved. He was compelled to record everything he saw in terms of light, and the resulting portraits and landscapes were masterpieces of illumination. His American photography was the best work he’d ever done, it was his life’s achievement. But in 1950, when he was approaching old-age, the country he loved had changed so much that he could no longer bear to stay, and so he left and emigrated to France. The problem was that his photography never recovered from the move. Because he hadn’t grown up in France he didn’t intimately understand the people, their culture or how they thought and felt, so he always felt excluded, no matter how friendly the locals were. This distance, and the inevitable culture gap, meant that his French work was perceived as being disjointed, sentimental, idealised and lacked the intimacy and insight of the original photographs from his homeland.

So even if by some miracle we bypassed the paperwork and health issues and we finally managed to emigrate, it is my deep suspicion that Rich’s photography would suffer irreparable damage. As Robert Adams observed, photographers are especially vulnerable to dislocation. It is not possible for them to transfer to a new country the fundamental ingredient of their art – their love for their people, culture and way of life.

Rich and I are both British through and through. We love our people and their foibles, their stubborn and repressed intellectual snobbery, their inability to admit when they are wrong. And we are probably rather too fond of the British stiff-upper-lip culture and our class ridden system with all its eccentricities and flaws. It’s the way we think, it’s who we are. Despite the injustices inflicted by the current oppressive regime, how can we bear to leave? And even if we did go, what would happen to our art?

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Images are of American model Clayre McKinnen, photographed in a very British style of course.

Justify My Art

Congratulations if you manage to make it to the end of this marathon epic and stay awake. Verbal diarrhoea or meaningful discussion about photographic art? You decide.

One of the most common accusations in the photographic world is that fine art nude photographers do not produce worthwhile and evolving photography. Many opponents argue that fine art nudes have no place in modern photography, that fine art is cheapened by the inclusion of a naked woman, that it is not “serious photography.”

It is a generally accepted concept in fine art photography (so Brooks Jensen et al. say anyway) that in order to constitute a good photograph, an image should be powerful. It should stimulate some sort of emotional response in the viewer, enlighten him or teach him a new truth. In short the photograph should mean something.

However, the objective of a fine art nude photograph is not necessarily to arouse an erotic reaction in the viewer. The purpose is to idealise and create an unattainable vision of beauty, a goddess, a vision of perfection, captured for one moment in time. An emotional response is not guaranteed. Thus it is argued by fine-art purists that mere admiration and objectification of beauty is insufficient to qualify a photograph as fine art. The purists maintain that fine art nudes are meaningless because they don’t enlighten the viewer nor do they produce a deep emotional response. A b+w nekkid chick isn’t exactly as psychologically profound as Pepper No 30 or Moonlight over Hernandez, now is it?

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Further, it is argued that there are simply too many fine art nude photographers nowadays. If you Google “Fine Art Nudes” there are tens of thousands of hits. Because of the growth of the internet and cheap digital cameras, b+w nudes are considered too overdone, too predictable. There are now so many images out there in cyberspace that they all look the same, and the topic has become boring, trivial and irrelevant. The genre is exhausted.

Lastly, we should consider the motivations of fine art nude photographers. Do nude photographers actually believe in art, or is it just an excuse to be in the same room as a naked woman? Nowadays every middle-aged bloke wants to be a fine art photographer. It allows him to get up close and personal with a naked chick and justify it as Art to his wife. Whether or not this means a photographer is a GWC or a fine art photographer is a moot point. Some guys don’t actually want to have sex with a woman, they just want to be in the same room and worship the perfect unattainable female from a distance. They want to create that image of Venus in every model they shoot, to bring out the inner Goddess in each woman. Does this make the photographer a GWC or an artist? Is the classification of whether or not a photographer qualifies as a proper fine art photographer simply a matter of whether he is technically any good at lighting and composition? Can the lowly GWC be a fine-art photographer if he is skilled enough, and do his motivations actually matter?

Moreover, if a photographer concentrates exclusively on shooting the female nude, doesn’t this result in variations on the same theme over and over again? Sure the lighting and model may vary, but the message is the same throughout. Every model is the same goddess, just with different skin. Is the photographer who repeats himself over and over again actually achieving anything? If he is conveying an emotional message that women are divine and unattainable, then O.K. what happens once he has done that? Now what? Sure the photographer has to develop his lighting and technique, and he becomes a better photographer, but that is a technical exercise. How does the message of his photography evolve? How can he continue doing the same thing for years and years without going completely nuts?

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Now before you all go and throw your Hasselblads into the nearest swamp, I want to tell you a story told to Rich by a well respected nude photographer whom he met recently.

The photographer concerned used to be in the armed forces when he was younger. Because he had some photographic training, he was allocated the terrible task of photographing and cataloguing the dead bodies for identification. Now personally I can’t imagine a worse assignment for a photographer. The level of horror and carnage that he was exposed to must have been unimaginable. The photographer didn’t go into the gory details, but clearly the experience had scarred him emotionally for life. Anyway, when the photographer returned home from his assignment, he resigned his commission and although he remained a photographer, he vowed to only ever photograph what was beautiful and good in the world. For the rest of his life. And what could possibly represent beauty, goodness and purity more than a naked woman?

As Ansel Adams said, “it is just as important to bring people the evidence of beauty of the world of nature and of man as it is to give them a document of ugliness, squalor, and despair.”

Ultimately nudes are like a beautiful landscape, where the subject is flesh rather than trees or a rock. Just as you can never grow tired of shooting different breathtaking landscapes, the beauty and infinite variety of the nude form can never become overdone or monotonous. It is the goal of the photographer to discover that unique individual spark within each woman, and if he succeeds, if only for a second, then that single moment captured by the camera is surely the essence of what photography is all about.

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I thought we'd have a Fine-Ass theme this time (as opposed to Fine-Art...oh never mind...)

Subject Before Technique

Thanks to all of you for your encouragement regarding my picking up a camera. The verdict is unanimous. I should go for it!

It sounds so simple doesn’t it? Pick up a camera and just start shooting. But I’m not the type of person to do that willy-nilly. I read extensively about photography of course, and the more I read, the more complicated it seems to be. Not the nuts and bolts of taking a shot of course. Any person with any moderate degree of intelligence can learn basic composition, exposure and how to work a camera. But there’s a heck of a difference between learning how to do that, and actually being a real photographer.

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To a complete novice like me, it seems that the first thing you need, before you even contemplate picking up a camera, is to have some idea of what you want to photograph. You can’t go round just photographing random places, objects or people and call yourself an artist. O.K. so many people do, but I’m talking about real photographers. You know, the ones that create photographs that actually mean something.

So my initial opinion is that I have to choose my subject matter first. And according to most learned photographic philosophy books I’ve read, it has to be something that I am both highly interested in and feel passionately about. Bland records of anything and everything don’t produce meaningful images. As photographer David Hurn said, "The photographer must have intense curiosity, not just a passing visual interest, in the theme of the pictures."

Technique, the how of producing a photograph, must come second to the subject matter. Your fascination, enthusiasm and passion for the subject of your choice are what makes a good photograph. O.K. technique is important too, but I propose it is not as important as the way you feel about what you are photographing. If you photograph a random image, which does not at least capture your basic curiosity, then there’s no way you are ever going to produce a meaningful image that will move either you or your viewers. The most vital component of the image is missing. Why is more important than how.

I’d rather look at a poorly composed snapshot taken by a mother of her kids, than a sterile expressionless “arty” Vogue fashion shot any day. The first reflects an intense emotional connection, a visual response to the world, the second is empty.

But that’s just me. And I might be way off track here, so please correct me if you think I’m talking complete nonsense.

Sadly for you lot, I don’t feel remotely curious or passionate about photographing naked women. However I do have an obsession with cats. I’d love to be able to take a decent portrait of my pussies. Not a snapshot. No, I mean a truly meaningful, good kitty portrait. One which pleases me at least, even if it leaves you reaching for the puke bag. (Brooks Jensen thinks cat photos are universally trite. To that I say: Art is subjective. Clearly you are not a cat lover. And BTW your cat probably hates you.)

Thus, due to my passion for all things feline, combined with a reasonable level of intelligence, extensive study of the craft of photography, and then after twenty years hard slog, I can therefore logically conclude with reasonable certainty that if I am still alive in 2028, I will probably be a moderately competent cat photographer.

Yay! Genu-Ine photographic ambition! As Bill Bradley once said, “Ambition is the path of success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.”

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Images are of Clayre McKinnen.

From this discussion we therefore conclude that Rich’s photographic curiosity is aroused by pretty women, preferably nekkid pretty women. Nothing wrong with that. In fact we both share a passion for pussies. The only difference is that mine is furry. (Not mine personally, you understand, the subject pussy, I mean. Although in the interests of political correctness I should state categorically for the record that both bald and furry pussies of both genres are equally welcome, as are partially waxed felines and kitties with landing strips. Don’t wanna offend the photographic subjects, now do we?)

A compelling reason to blog

This is just a short note to let everyone know we are still alive but swamped with day job work. Lin has been away on business, and has been asking if I've been keeping up with the blog (oh dear.) Apparently if I don't post an entry I'll be in deep trouble when she gets home tonight:-(

Normal service will resume shortly :-)



Image is of Clayre McKinnen

Photography in a recession

This is written with my accountant’s hat firmly bolted to my head. Try to read all of this please. No quitting. It’s important.

This will be the second recession I’ve seen in my lifetime. The first one was in the 1990’s and wound up with us having a shed-load of negative equity on our flat ("apartment" in U.S. speak) which took years to pay off. That flat was our debt pile. Rich and I were young and foolish, it was our first property, and we remortgaged and borrowed heavily to make it look like our dream home. I vividly remember our black bathroom with gold-plated bath taps. Holy crap, we had bad taste back then.

So here we all go again. Shortly we enter the “bust” part of the boom/bust cycle. Not feeling the pain yet? Don’t worry, you might have another six months of feeling flush with cash, but feel it you will. The wheel turns, and always spins back to the beginning. Nothing changes. Life just repeats itself endlessly in infinite cycles. The world will live to see another boom, but in the meantime, how do artists and photographers survive the next few years? With the rise of the internet and the rise of the cheap digital camera, the rise of freely available online photography, free software, free stock photos, even free porn, how will artists and photographers (of whatever genre) continue to make a living?

Now I’ll side with Jimmy D’s excellent article, and say they won’t. Those of us who are self-employed, and rely on photography either as our main or supplementary income, are going to suffer horribly in the next few years. There’s no chance now of Fluffytek going completely professional. Rich reckons the best he could ever manage is semi-pro. He can maybe earn a little on the side from photography via the occasional private portfolio, but he could never do this full time because the market is simply no longer there. We could sell pretty prints of course, but making your money back takes a long time. Equipment and studios cost a lot, and UK model fees have increased about 40% in the last year alone (either the inflation figures are wrong, or models have suddenly become very hungry.) TFCD models are of course the obvious solution to the latter problem, and although free art models appear to be plentiful in America, in the UK they are decidedly rare jewels. And considering the rise in the number of internet photographers, models can pick and choose, and may well (quite understandably) go where the money is, ignoring the quality of the photographer.

In the end, it all comes down to money. Everyone has to eat after all. But if the general public are economising and not able to afford your services, and collectors are hanging onto their cash because their jobs are in jeopardy and they have to feed their families, then without your photographic passion actually funding itself, you’re going to be hard-pushed to rely on your art to pay the bills, and you simply won’t have the money to pay models.

So what now? Do you give up art and become a plumber? (Always a lucrative profession in the UK as decent plumbers are very hard to come by.)

Well, I think the priority should definitely be to add more strings to your bow. It may be that your art has to take a slightly lower priority than before, but that doesn’t mean you have to give up on it.



If you do decide to stick at photography or art as a source of income, then you should formulate a series of personally tailored strategies. Here is my Ten Point Action Plan (please feel free to add or subtract from the list):

1. Practise, practise, practise. In a recession, only the very best artists survive, and even they find it tough. Your work can’t be mediocre. It has to be outstanding, it has to be unique, it must stand out from the crowd, and your reputation must be flawless.

2. Barter with models more – don’t agree to the first price they charge. Beat them down a bit (fiscally speaking.) Don’t agree to the first price they quote, and try proposing a lower “all-in” price including travelling. Approach potential TFCD models and really work at booking them. If in doubt, rely in that all important male persuasion device, “charm.”

3. When you do shoot models, plan your shoot in advance as much as you can, practise lighting (Rich and I do this all the time), take less coffee breaks during the shoot, and really push your models to get the best out of them, particularly if you are intending to sell prints from the shoot. Your models won’t mind if they are genuine professionals – they will expect to work hard for their fee. And make sure your modelling release is in order. Get it checked by a lawyer if necessary.

4. Run teaching courses – always a lucrative little money-spinner if you have the time, although this is nigh impossible if you have a day-job like us. Consider providing Photoshop courses, lecturing, teaching at schools or colleges, or small tailored courses for leisure photographers – heaven knows there are an abundance of those around nowadays.

5. Compromise your principles and consider other genres. Yes I really did say that. Now I’m not proposing that everyone takes up shooting hardcore porn, largely because I don’t believe there’s a market out there for that either (too many videos and Red Tube nowadays. All the pornographers are going bust.) But you might like to think laterally for a bit. Consider other genres and a lower profit margin, such as landscape photographs for local calendars, putting on local exhibitions, collaborating with other photographers to run special events, pimping your prints, shooting private portfolios for couples, approaching magazines, even (*shudder*) bulk topless glamour piccies for 50 quid each for the lads’ mags. Whatever it takes.

I know one of our local photographers, an outstanding portrait photographer, is now reduced to going round local yummy-mummy craft fairs and charging £10 a time for quick portraits. Desperation indeed. Yes she has abandoned both taste and principles, but it’s a tough market out there. If photography is your income, you have to earn some money somehow. (I’ve used suggestions that are relevant to our little UK rural area – please do suggest as many other money-making ideas as possible. Yes they might be offensive to some, but this is reality.)

6. Advertise. Perhaps online (via Google Ads if you can afford it), fluff up your web site, get your Google search rankings as high as possible. Advertise in the local press, offer bargain lower-price offers to lure customers in (you can charge more later for extra prints or portfolio books), follow up all leads, network, make cold-calls. Do your research – whatever works for your genre and for your local area.

7. This one’s a no-brainer. STOP SPENDING MONEY. Make do and mend. If you are making a loss from your photography, then you cannot afford to use your plastic to buy that extra light, that big A3 printer, that groovy new scanner. And most importantly, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES BORROW TO FUEL YOUR ART, no matter how much you love it. IT IS NOT YOUR MONEY.

8. If your photography is not profitable, or at least breaking even over the year, then consider taking another job. This is the route we are currently going down. If you are self-employed like us, it is advisable to have your fingers in as many pies as possible. For example, I am going to take a deep breath and compromise my principles and actually try to sell some of this inane waffle that I sprout on here. I certainly don’t want to do it, but I have no choice. Bills have to be paid. Internet journalism beckons, no matter how much I hate the idea.

9. FACE REALITY. Be honest with yourself, no matter how hard this is. Draw up a list of how much you bring in, how much you spend, how much you owe, and then formulate a budget and STICK TO IT. Figure out just how much profit you made last year. And if it’s clear that your business (whether full time or supplementary) is never going to work out, rather than run up horrendous debts, be honest and get out before it takes you down with it.

10. Devise a long term survival strategy for the recession. A Five Year Survival Plan if you like. Everyone has different skills they can sell. Take a deep breath, summon your inner muse, and take some action. Start thinking and innovate. Stop wallowing in self-pity and actually DO SOMETHING.

Lastly, please don’t think, “Mmm. Nice post Lin, quite interesting. A bit boring but some good points.” And then treat this as a mildly entertaining read and promptly forget it.

I have given up five hours of my life to write this.

Why? Because it’s IMPORTANT DAMMIT!

If you don’t formulate a plan now, and actually ACT on it, how exactly are you intending to survive the next five years?



Images are of U.S. model Clayre KcKinnen.

Why Do Nude Photographers Get More Action?

A recent British study has found that professional creative types (whether male or female) have on average twice as many sexual partners as their non-artist peers. It’s not just down to the fact that more artists see naked women, because this evidence applies across all types of art. So why are artists, and photographers in particular, so damn sexy?

Well of course artists are perceived as being passionate and dedicated to their craft, so women naturally assume they will be the same in the sack. Artists are deemed to have complicated and deep personalities. Accountants like me are not. Plus artists are often more open about their sexuality - their mind works in different ways, and they are more psychologically open to new ideas and are trained to explore new artistic directions, in and out of bed. Simply put, they are not as conservative as your average stockbroker.

Photographers (especially those who shoot nudes) are also experienced at handling women. They study women all the time. Lots of them. Usually naked. When a woman takes off her clothes, to some extent she removes her psychological barriers. Her psyche is laid bare. She must trust the photographer implicitly, and he must not abuse that trust, either at the time of the shoot, or in their dealings afterwards. Thus, it follows that the photographer has to be a nice guy.

Not all of them are nice, of course, and I have hard of photographers abusing that level of trust pretty badly. Let’s face it – some people are creeps. But hopefully those are the exceptions to the rule. Call me naïve, but on the whole, I do believe that the majority of photographers are worthy of long term trust, and most of them are kind and insightful people who treat their subjects with the greatest respect. They don’t openly judge a woman, they don’t judge sexuality, and they are open to all types of personalities who model for them. And because they are such good people, the best photographers are universally adored by many of their models.

There is also the very important point that the more experienced photographers know how women think. They have to. People skills, and putting a woman at ease is part of their job. How else can they get the best from their subject? A photographer has to understand the basic psychology of men and women, plus he has to be able to know how to use that knowledge to enhance his art. So it is fair to say that he has to know himself pretty well too. He must be self-confident, polite, non-judgmental, humorous, and if he is slightly flirtatious whilst maintaining an air of respect and complete control, then this will dramatically improve the emotional response of his model.

So you’ll notice that I have purely coincidentally described the qualities of most women’s ideal man. Study the wish list of most women, and you’ll find that they are looking for strong, self assured, even slightly arrogant men, who can make them laugh, make them feel like the most beautiful woman in the world, make them feel unique and wonderful. No wonder many women find nude photographers irresistible. Of course it helps if he is devastatingly good looking (has anyone actually seen that photo of James Graham in his super-fashionable designer black coat and NOT gone completely weak at the knees? I rest my case.)

However good looks are not essential. In fact I think they can actually count negatively towards the photographer’s sex appeal. Guys who are not what is perceived as “traditionally handsome” will always be more interesting to me, because they are often more modest, take themselves less seriously and are bit of an enigma. Mysteries are the ultimate hook to get the chicks interested, believe me. We wanna see what makes you chaps tick.

But ultimately your physical appearance and especially your age is irrelevant to your sex appeal. It is knowing yourself and being able to say who you are that is the real turn-on. Fortunately for photographers, most “ordinary” non-creative types don’t actually know themselves. Hence when women come across a powerful man - powerful because he has self knowledge and is in touch with his emotions - they are in awe of him, and they fall for him big time.

The power of knowing yourself is the ultimate aphrodisiac. It gives you power over your models, power over women and power over your art.

More enlightened photographers make better artists. And they’re better in bed too.

(Disclaimer: The author admits to twenty years of romantic bias regarding that last point.)



And to those photographers who say, “This is twaddle! I’m not getting any action,” my reply is a) maybe you prefer quality over quantity (which is wonderful of course, but it’s your choice so stop complaining) or b) Maybe you’re just shy, and you don’t realise how sexy you are?!

The Santa Nun

Apparently I'm well over due for doing a post and I've been threatened with death , or at least no supper, if I don’t do a post today. I have also been instructed that it must be a serious photographic post. Ho Hum.

Well in the last few weeks I’ve been playing around with my CGI packages, learning what they do and how they do it. I'm also finding out that’s it’s all too easy to crash these things. I don’t know who writes these but it’s really not acceptable for an app to lock and crash after several hours losing all the work you've done. So now I know to save everything very often.

But I have made some achievements. I know most of the methods used to create skin and make it look good. I'm not at the 100% photorealistic stage yet but I'm getting a book from Santa on how to make photorealistic faces. The techniques should then be applicable to the whole body.

I've been learning about rigging models, sounds kinky doesn’t it! Unfortunately it’s not the process of tying them up and dangling them from the ceiling but the technique of taking the models skin envelope and attaching it to a bone structure so that you can animate the body. This is really tricky to do well as human joints are a pig to get right, and don’t get me started about having your hand go right through your tummy when you move your shoulder!

Hair has also been fun. Hair simulation is getting pretty good and I'm slowly getting better at it. The main problem I have at the moment is with the computer I'm running it on, well one of them anyways. I tried to render some fur and accidently set the number of hair instances too high. I was greeted with a nice error message as the app crashed telling me it had failed to allocate 7GB of ram. Whoops. Maybe I should run it on the XP64 machine I have.

So anyways I spent this morning putting together a piccy for you to show you what I have acheived so far. Today’s WIP. Lin took one look at this and described it as a nun in a Santa hat, so she is now and always shall be the Santa Nun.

I present to you the Santa Nun in all her glory, or at least her head, as I didn’t model the rest.



You'll notice that the Santa Nun doesn’t have real eyes, I could say that this is because she’s really possessed by the devil and thus we should rename this TSNPD - "The Santa Nun Possessed by the Devil", but in reality I just I ran out of time and didn’t have time to add more realistic eyes. I think it’s kind of cool anyway.

The whole poly count of the model needs to go up and I need to add some actual details to the skin beyond colouring and reflection models. But I'm still working on that.

You can also see the fur that caused the problems. As one of my fluffies she was supposed to be fluffier and the fur whiter but at 20mins to render I wasn’t going to spend too long playing around.

The real Christmas fluffy for this post is Clayre McKinnen

The Meaning of Inspiration

One of the most over-used words in the nude photographic world is “inspiration.” You only have to go on MM or other photography forums to notice that photographers and models use the term all the time.

“Darling you inspire me!” is a phrase I’ve heard way too much over the last couple of years. Of course, it’s a compliment, and it’s meant well, but it’s kind of like an air-kiss or a friend request on MM. It’s usually not a true feeling - it’s just another form of networking, of pimping yourself. Used too often, it’s meaningless and empty. It’s just another love fest.

I guess I sound pretty grumpy and cynical about this, and you’re right, I shouldn’t be. Everyone likes to hear they inspire others. Of course they do. And I wanna be loved as much as the next model. Show me mega-love people! Heck, I really WANT TO be the most inspiring-middle-aged-nude-model-writer ever (yeah, right, like that‘s ever going to happen.) And you never see Rich objecting to being told he’s an inspirational photographer (he gets told it often.)

But does it mean anything?

Well, it means a great deal if the person saying it genuinely feels an emotional response to your work, but I’m guessing this actually happens a lot less than we would like to believe. Otherwise Rich and I would be such amazingly inspirational icons, we’d be walking on water by now.

“Inspiration” is a sacred word. The Greek word for inspiration is “Theopneustos.” It literally means “God-breathed,” or given by the inspiration of God. The theology is that the Divine Being/spirit/goddess/giant-marshmallow-man who presides over us all actually uses human faculties to guide mortals to “record the ultimate truth.”

Basically, the word is used (in both the theological and the artistic sense) to explain a supernatural or mysterious divine influence on artists, musicians, writers, photographers and so forth to record, communicate and channel the truth. This process of “making truth” requires a combination of both the artist’s human personality, intermingling with the revelation inside the artist’s head. Only if both elements are present, can powerful art be created.

Inspiration is therefore much more than stimulating someone into having a new photographic or artistic idea. It is more than giving someone a new insight into a way to produce a pretty picture. Of course, the word is usually used in these contexts, and many photographers will say, “I was inspired by Ansel Adams/Weston/Insert-another-great-photographer's-name-here to take this shot.” Naturally, studying another photographer will give you rough ideas, and you might like to copy his ideas and adapt them to your own. However, to me at least, inspiration is much more than that.

As a photographer (or a dedicated art model who is passionate about art) you shoot because you have to. It is essential to you as eating. If you don’t make art, you’ll be grumpy, unfulfilled, hell to live with. Part of you is missing if you’re not making that photograph, creating that image in your head. Only when you’ve made that imaginary picture actually real, and recorded on camera, only then can you feel release.

This process is what I mean by “inspiration.”

You might not believe in God or the giant marshmallow-man, although this is actually irrelevant. The mere fact that “something” inside you makes you create those pictures- THAT is the process of real “inspiration.” The process comes from your own psyche. Not from reading other people’s work, or looking at other people’s photographs or paintings. Other artists may stimulate your thoughts, but the real inspiration comes from YOU the artist, and whatever supernatural or psychological force you tune into when you experience the process of artistic creation.

So my plea to you is not to use the word “inspired” lightly.

You are your own inspiration. You create your own truth. No-one else can give that to you.



Of course, for those who don't remotely believe in divine beings or supernatural-marshmallow-men (hi Rich!), then you should clearly refer to the next Highest Authority in the Cosmos. Which is Google of course.

So if you Google “nudes inspiration,” the number one nude inspiration in the world is…wait for it…… Iris Dassault (as reviewed by Newcastle Art Nudes.)

Bet she didn’t know that!

Pop!

No not the famous fashion magazine. I’m talking about the sound made by the overly pumped-up art market, which finally burst last week and farted around the room like a rapidly deflating balloon.

Art is just another bubble. Prices in the art market have shot up much higher in recent years, in a similar way to yours and my favourite asset class – the housing market. The Financial Times has estimated that the Mei Moses All Art Index has risen 15.5% a year on average for the last ten years. As I reported a few months ago, we have seen some truly spectacular prices achieved for art. This is partially due to the humongous bonuses awarded to rich bankers and hedge-fund managers. Indeed it’s not just foreign billionaires who have viewed art as a valid method of investment. Up until now, it didn’t even matter if you liked the work of art you were purchasing - this was completely irrelevant. As long as it was by somebody famous, or even better, someone who MIGHT be famous one day, then it was snapped up at exorbitant prices by practically anyone. Art collecting has always been a valid investment method, until now.

The rot set in last week, when a highly publicised New York art auction went horribly wrong. The sale earned $270m, far below the pre-sale estimate of $401m. Poor ol’ Vince (van Gogh) failed to sell his wonderful landscape “Wheat Fields” for the required price tag of $35m. In fact the poor (dead) chap couldn’t sell it at all. Even the late Pablo Picasso couldn’t sell four of his paintings. Twenty of the seventy-six lots didn’t sell at all. And as for Sotheby's, well I am wincing in sympathy for them as they had to pay the owners a fixed guarantee on the lots (even if they didn’t sell), which was estimated to cost them around $240m. So their shares promptly fell for two days running, wiping a third off their value. Despite Sotheby's putting a brave face on things, that had to hurt pretty bad. They must be dreading this week, when they host their big New York contemporary sale. Fingers crossed, eh?

So what the hell happened last week? Two words - Credit Crisis.

Art investment is just another example of the boom ‘n’ bust cycle. With sub-prime still wrecking the US economy, and the UK about to follow suit, hedge-fund managers are not in the mood to spend their remaining cash on over-priced art which is costly to look after and insure. When people (even rich people) see prices falling, they suddenly lose interest in that class of asset, even if it is supposedly cool to be seen to own famous works of art. After all, having a famous painting or photograph on your wall when your posh buddies come round for a beer, isn’t going to be much to shout about if all your friends secretly think, “Blimey mate, you paid HOW MUCH?! Are you an idiot or what? Didn’t you know the art market has gone to the dogs?”

So my professional recommendation, as your trusty international nekkid accountant, is:

If you are an artist or photographer who sells his work, buckle up. It’s gonna get hairy after Christmas, so expect your collectors to disappear into the mist and your print prices to tumble forthwith…

If you are an art collector who has invested for the short term (and you are not deeply emotionally attached to the fancy piccies on your wall):

Sell! Sell! Sell! While you still can.




Sorry. Must stop blogging about economics. Force of habit, I’m afraid.

Here’s Clayre McKinnen – I really like this pose.

The Thinning of the Ranks

Gary M has been doing a most excellent job of monitoring the ongoing trend amongst photographers to take a break from nude photography. I have also been dismayed to learn of the number of nude photographers who are changing style, taking a break, quit altogether, or have simply lost their mojo. Having briefly lost my own mojo recently, I can completely relate to this, but it’s nevertheless upsetting when so many talented nude artists quit all within the space of one month.

This is not just related to the bloggie nude photographers we know and love. You only have to go to the web-models forum in the UK to learn of all the nude and glamour photographers leaving for health, or “personal” reasons. It’s like a virtual graveyard at times, compared to this time last year. There are large numbers of models complaining bitterly about not being able to get paid work any more, and the photographers’ shoot cancellation rates have gone through the roof.

Of course photographers and artists come and go all the time, but why so many now, all at once?

“Is it something in the air?” I said yesterday. "Or like Gary says - is it something in the water?"

“More like something in the wallet,” said Rich.

Indeed, the global credit crunch means that most people are increasingly hard-up financially (ourselves included). It is exceptionally difficult to find money to pay models (no matter how good they are and how much you want to shoot them) when you have no dosh left at the end of the month. This is assuming you do nude photography as a personal interest, rather than being hired by an agency of course. AFAIK, agency photographers are doing just fine. Although I've heard that fashion photography is suffering too, and Conde Nast have cut their flat rates for most fashion shooters to a paltry £350 for a finished set of fashion photographs. This deeply sucks. How the hell are photographers (and therefore by default, professional models too) supposed to put food on the table? It is very difficult to be inspired to create unique and amazing art when you’re constantly worried about monthly bills.

But it’s not just money. There’s such an air of pessimism around, that even some of the most talented artists are having problems getting their creative juices flowing. Partially it’s the weather of course – winter is approaching, our bodies are genetically designed to semi-hibernate at this time of year, and glamour/nude photography is seasonal anyway.

But there’s also the problem, in the UK at least, of an increased sense of fear and caution on the part of models. For example, and I mean this in the nicest possible way and with no disrespect at all to UK models, but most of our shoots are now chaperoned by boyfriends or other photographers (even though they know I'm going to be around). Again this is no problem in most cases, unless the chaperone interferes, which has unfortunately happened on more than one occasion this year. This leads to a certain air of tension in the shoot, and hardly helps the creative process. In addition, modelling charges have nearly doubled on average since this time last year, which in turn produces additional pressure on photographers.

All in all, it’s not a pretty picture is it? By spring either everyone will either be up financial shit-creek (pardon my lingo), or the problems will have self-corrected and photographers will be inspired to start shooting again. Or else they will decide to cut back on nude photography, and start shooting something else.

Which is exactly what Rich quietly decided to do a little while ago. Over the space of the last few months, I have watched as something in his eyes slowly died. That something was the last vestige of desire to be a professional nude photographer. He denied anything was wrong, but of course, I knew.

He finally decided to tell me last week.

We had a long, long talk over industrial amounts of (very good) coffee. He’s not quitting nude photography entirely, thank God, and he’s going to honour his modelling commitments for the rest of the year (now where have I heard that phrase before?) but after that, things will change. This is because we have changed, as people. The art must evolve along with the personal development of the artists themselves.

Rich will still continue to occasionally photograph nudes, and I will continue to steal some for the blog, but studio nudes will be a very small part of a new and different project that he has in mind for the future. To coin the (absolutely terrible) photographic phrase, “He’s taking his art to the next level.”

Of course he’ll be inflicting the results on you folks in due course, as it’s all part of the learning process. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I’ll let him tell you more about it soon. It’s his art after all.

Me? As long as I can keep waffling on about nothing-in-particular, and showing mega-groovy art piccies, I’ll be happy. After all, waffling is an art form too.



Clayre McKinnen from a few weeks ago.

A Fresh Start

A fine Monday morning hello to our remaining five readers!

Greetings five readers! Good to see you here, now that my dear husband (defender of my honour and integrity) has scared off everyone else by yelling at them (and you wonder why I try to keep him away from the day-job customers!?!). Yes yes, I know many people didn’t comment because they didn’t know what to say - silent sympathy and all that, but rightly or wrongly, bad news means people need support from their community, which in my case, is “you lot”! So thanks to those that took the time to contact me.

O.K. now that our readership is somewhat smaller and cosier, we have decided to make a fresh start, change things round a bit.

I fully intend to forget about this crappy disease as much as possible. Photography and Art both help me do this. They are good therapy, as is my writing. Without photography, blogging and my occasional stories, I’d go completely crackers.

We did seriously contemplate deleting this blog and setting up another one instead, but since Rich has scared off all the readers anyway, there’s no need. However the blog will change. We are thirsty for more, much more. We must modernise, re-build, re-conquer, fight for a new and greater glory, etc, etc.

The good news is we will continue to blog about art, and show beautiful art nude photography.

The bad news is all the other stuff we are going to include.

From now on we are going to be less concerned about writing only what we think will interest people, or what will titillate your taste-buds, so to speak (with the emphasis on “taste”).

From now on we are going to write about what the hell we like. Art and photography is included in this of course, but not exclusively. We have lots to say about our lives, our society, politics, relationships, philosophy, religion, sex – oh yes, I have plenty to say about sex, but have never done so before because it’s “not the done thing, what?!”

In short I have decided to give myself a real bona-fide mid-life crisis. I’ve worked hard for it, I’ve earned it, and I’m damn well gonna have it. So you can expect some dippy behaviour (and accompanying dodgy photos) from me, and if that horrifies friends and readers, well c’est la vie. I do not intend to take life very seriously, and I definitely intend to have a heck of a lot of fun.

And Rich is going to post whatever writing (or should that be “ranting”?!) and photographs he feels like posting, even if the photographic genre is sometimes not classic fine art nudes, and consequently puts off the models (which is very highly likely, I’m afraid).

In short, we are drawing a line in the sand.

Starting again.

Hope you still decide to stay with us.




Clayre McKinnen, also thirsty.

The Happy Place

According to the Urban Dictionary, a “Happy Place” is defined as “The mental state achieved when one wants to avoid the unpleasant or uncomfortable. Everyone's happy place is different, and usually consists of the things that make them joyous.”

The last seven days have been really awful.

In order of occurrence:

1. My middle son broke his finger on his left hand. His right arm is also in plaster from breaking it three weeks ago, so now the poor chap can’t use either limb, although he is soldiering on bravely.

2. Rich is working frightening hours on the day-job, as the next software patch is long overdue, and the customers are getting pissed. They also won’t part with hard cash until the bugs are fixed, causing no small about of worry for me, the trusty company finance director.

3. Rich’s photography was rejected from an agent as not being distinctive enough, and because it is too much like much of the material they have already. He thinks this is a valid criticism, and he also doesn’t know which direction he is going in the future. He has felt the need to change photographic direction for a while now - he’s always said he wouldn’t shoot the fine art nude genre forever. So he’s musing on this, and I am being suitably musey (which is fun!), and no doubt varying experiments and results will appear in due course.

So the week is not so bad so far, huh?

Well, number four came earlier this week.

On Tuesday morning I was approached by my first real local professional model agency, asking me to join them. I was so excited!
And then the twist of fate.

On Tuesday afternoon, my annual MRI results came back. They were not good. My tumour is growing slowly but steadily, wrapping itself insidiously around my brain. It is inoperable, and radiation resistant. When surgeons start to use words like “incurable”, “wait and see”, “containment” and “quality of life” you get a horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach that just won’t go away. The good news is that it can probably be contained long term - they are going to nuke the tissue around the little critter next year some time (long waiting list for gamma knife machine), which should in theory prevent it from expanding further.

Number four has resulted in me being a bit of a basket case for a couple of days, not least because the treatment will herald the end of my modelling, not to mention I will now be forever unemployable. This it has been, shall we say, “a bit of a blow”. However I do feel more positive about this now. After all, I do get to live! Hurrah!

Now you’ll all be pleased to hear that I have no intention of whinging on about cancer endlessly - in fact I didn’t intend to mention it at all, but I thought it might help explain why I have been so, um… “moody” recently (I’m really sorry about that Captain James D).

So, most importantly, how does this affect the photography? Well, Rich wanted to give it up. He was concerned that I would get upset about him photographing gorgeous naked chix when I am “unphotogenic” in the future (no he doesn’t think I’ll be unphotogenic - but I know I’m going to be, for treatment reasons I’m not discussing here, but Melvin knows what I mean).

Well I’m definitely not letting Rich quit his photography. Oh no siree. Quitting is not an option.

Photography is our happy place. It makes us feel better inside, gives us the warm fuzzies.

Art is in our blood now. We can’t go back.


"What separates artists from ex-artists is that those who challenge their fears continue; those who don’t, quit.”

Art and Fear, page 14.




This is model and artist Clayre McKinnen from last week’s shoot