Ok, so I'm no photographer...

but through this "naked project" of mine I have encountered a few very new photographers who have just purchased their 1st real camera and are anxious to have DNA, Women and other such model agencies banging on their door in "East" Williamsburg.

Often these guys share with me their woeful tales of "having" to shoot "ugly" models.

I have been a professional fashion stylist for 8 years I have also art-directed and produced shoots. Thus from experiences, I feel I can offer my humble opinion on the subject:

When seeing a photo of a model or her comp card, before choosing her make sure she you have some feeling of inspiration from her image, after which you should meet her in person (a go-see) to make sure her photos are representative of who she is (like, she hasnt aged by a decade or gained 20lb, etc). Also and very importantly, you must watch for a good rapport with her or try an establish one if she's difficult or shy...or foreigh who speaks 3 English words. Also at the meet go through every image in her portfolio, look at the natural unretouched ones carefully, study why those photos worked, what is his/her best angle, feature, most natural way of posing etc. Use this research as a way to save yourself time so you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you shoot someone new, have ideas of how you will shoot them before you start.
When it comes to "testing" where you are sent someone new from an agency (or no agency) who is too new to have any pics you can study and or you notice that during the shoot the pics are coming out just terrible, try taking a break and investing a good hour talking with her, having her relax, drinking tea or wine (if she's of age) or whatever- try to see what her lover would see in her, take snapshots as you speak...
This works very well for character portraits especially.
Don't have her do weird fashion poses if its not her, use her style. As a photographer, your camera is the eye to her inner beauty and it is your job to bring it out. Of course its easier and GREAT if in comes a 6 foot photogenic beauty who knows how to move and emote and has a great personality and whose skin you barely have to touch in photoshop, but on the flip where's the challenge in that? = )

The above Polaroids were taken by Frank of www.frankaugust.com, as I danced to gypsy music!
Frank is so adapt at drawing out (the best of) your characater that it's incredibly easy and a high to pose for this gentleman of a photographer. The site I linked is his personal projects work, but he is also a well seasoned photographer with a polished editorial and commercial portfolio under his belt. But what a dynamic individual! Aside his charm and easygoing nature, there is a serenity yet wildness about him (as if he were a 60 year old sage and at the same time a 12 year old boy). Bigg kiss to Frank, xoxo!

Shoot me nude, shoot me lewd

My last post kept me thinking about the distinction between pornographic versus art nudes. I became overwhelmed realizing there is much in between, I began to think of it as a spectrum, pornographic photography being on one end and art nudes photography on the other, with erotica and glamour somewhere in the middle.

Certainly all of the above styles of have spectrums within themselves, for the sake of my sainity I'm only focusing my opnions on the four aforementioned categories. I might sound a little pedantic, you must forgive me!

Pornographic photography uses the depiction of the body and its sexual mechanisms as a tool to intetionally evoke sexual arousal from the viewer.

Erotic photography is not sexually explicit as pornographic. It is charged with sexual suggestion while leaving the explicity to the viewer's imagination.

Glamour photography is a very airbrushed style of photography depicting women with flat tummies and curvy breasts, shiny hair, bright teeth, glowing skin and seductive Mona-Lisa smiles usually clad in a bikinni or implying nudity (covering of the breasts with an arm for example). This style promotes the viewers' fantasy of the "perfect" woman (think Maxim style covers).

Art nude or figure nude photography uses the body the way a landscape photographer uses the landscape to capture interesting composition, form, texture, lines and and angles. The body is used almost inanimately.

Ironically, the photography styles at the opposite ends of this spectrum, pornographic and art nude, have one very common ground, both objectify the body.

In my opinion the above image of me would be a mixture of erotica and an art nude. As erotica, it suggests sex and has me tease the viewer with the placement of my hand, it also utilizes a bit of sexually suggestive apparel (note my self styling :). This image can also be argued as an art nude, because art nudes do not engage the subject's face or do not even use it alltogether, my body becomes simply about the the lines.

This photo was taken by a photographer who goes by Gus.

You may view some samples of Gus' other photography here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/42670484@N05/

Is there a difference in posing for pornographic nudes versus art nudes?

The line between the two is generally pretty distinct in my opinion, though maybe not in the Puritan's view (I say Puritan, like a Puritan would say, "fuck," it's a dirty word- what's dirty? Dirty is the perversion of something natural.)

Nude modeling involves showing and using the body for a creative purpose, interpreting the artist's vision of a particular philosophy or even more simply his or her view of what is aesthetically appealing.

Erotic posing is quite different, as the intent is to have model purposefully elicit a sexual response from the viewer, whether it's she's nude or not. It's just as sexual for her to hold her labia or anus open (I say 'her" because I want to cover male erotic modeling at a later point, as it for her to be dressed but portraying a fetish, a dominatrix type dressed in a rubber outfit, or in pigtails wearing a short catholic school girl uniform licking a lollipop, you get the idea.
It's not about the lighting (pornography is sometimes known for bad lighting, but so are some art photographers in training), nor is it about what happens to the viewer who is seeing either, both might or might not turn the viewer on, again it's about the intent.

The painting of nudes has been around since the time of the Greek art culture as has been the art model. Would you call a Rubenesque painting depicting an art model reclining fully nude, porn? I wouldn't.

But, what would one call the image above? Is it artistic because you do not know what and why I am holding? Is it a whip? Is it the leash to a collar? Are my hands being tied?
Is it artistic because you are thinking about this now versus being fed an already digested image ready for your eyes to dower while the blood quickly flows to your nether regions?

Image above was shot by Joshua Rubin, you can view his portfolio as well as read his commentary on nudity and its exploration through artistic photography on his site: www.joshuarubin.com

Sometimes a cigar is not just a cigar

You can also catch this video on youtube.com:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5JHLclqPfA

Photographer: Corto Stewart Maltese, we had not one but TWO shoots that day and he shot over 1200 frames! Photos from the shoots will be coming to me slowly, but if this video is any representative of the shots, I'm loving them already. Can you tell I was having fun? God I need as much fun as I can get!
You can find bit of Corto's work at www.pbase.com/cstewartmaltese

Ah!

Ah! I am being a good girl to myself, keeping the ex-boyfriend off my mind, but then something stupid happens and I think of the boy again.

During yesterday's shoot, I played "Histoire De Melody Nelson" by Serge Gainsbourg on loop, and it had a soft, sensual and caling affect on me (like "froth on your cappucino on a cold winder morning" a boy said that to me once in highschool, he was referring to me and how I had made him feel. I was 16 and to this day I count this as one of the sweetest compliments I have received, but I digresss...)

So, today playing the same album, which yesterday had calmed me and had me think of nothing but the now, has me thinking of this ex-boyfriend to no end, well not thinking really, more like feeling- but feeling like I am holding a very cold and untasty cappucino, with no sugar to be found and Ah! definitely forget the froth, but this is all I have to drink and I am just so so thirsty, so I just keep holding it, wrinkling my nose at it, not drinking but still not sure I want to dispose of it.

Here are lyrics (better heard then read, but Ah!) to one of my favorites from aforementioned album (and a song most closely related to my end with the ex-boyfriend), "Ah! Melody:"

Ah ! Melody
Tu m'en auras fait faire
Des conneries
Hue hue et ho
A dada sur mon dos
Oh ! Melody
L'amour tu ne sais pas ce que c'est
Tu me l'as dit
Mais tout ce que tu dis est-il vrai?

Ah ! Melody
Tu m'en auras fait faire
Des conneries
Hue hue et ho
A dada sur mon dos
Oh ! Melody
Si tu m'as menti j'en ferai
Une maladie
Je n'sais pas c'que je te ferai

and in English:

Ah! Melody
You'll make me do
Stupid things
Piggyback on my back
Oh! Melody
You don't know what love is
You told me that
But is everything that you say true?

Ah! Melody
You'll make me do
Stupid things
Piggyback on my back
Oh! Melody
If you lied to me I'll do
Something crazy
I don't know what I'll do to you!

The above photo was taken by Chris Brown (no, not thaat Chris Brown), a veteran model of 14 years who has taken up photography as well, and he's not just toying with it, he knows how to use it well too. A soft spoken and grounded man with extraordinary striking looks we spoke for a good hour before we even began shooting. He seems to be more about the connection with the subject behind the lens than shooting "just a pretty model" (speaking of pretty models, you can see him here: http://www.mostbeautifulman.com/misc/ChrisBrown/bio.shtml).
He says of his photographic style: "I love shooting beautifully and naturally... with a hint of eroticism. I'm not so much into vulgar, shocking or ironic... instead, soft sensual, moodiness, vulnerability.... just beautiful."

Break-up Blues & Green Eyed Jealousy Monsters

This project was a factor in my breakup with a boyfriend two days ago.

Every man I have been in a relationship in (with the exception of my Lolita-esque relationship with a man twice my age when I was 19 year old) developed a green eyed jealousy monster, the eye growing greener and larger as the months went on. The monster would take him over and... we all know there few things scrarier that the jealousy monster.

I am not a virgin nor whore; I am both, I will shift from one to the other and back again.

For the record that is my eye up there, and it is green, and I am also guilty for having been jealous and holding down someone's spirit in that way before, but I'm learning every day that none of us belong to each other, that you are sharing yourself and they are sharing themselves and this transience may or may not turn into forever, (usually it doesn't), so just relish the moment...

I found my tongue

...and can now formulate, a little better as to what and why I am doing here.
I would like this blog and portfolio to serve as an evolving commentary on society's portrayal of women and sexuality, as the mainstream view of woman as either "virgin" or "whore" continues to persist. I want my portfolio to be the rainbow between the white and the black, that kind of splitting type thinking.

I am not saying anything new, nor are you hearing anything new, and as it said in Kohelet or Ecclesiastes, "There is Nothing New Under the Sun."

In addition to that, there are aspects of me that started this project out of your pure teenage rebellion type defiance. Or maybe I am just seeing how far I can push my own envelope? Or perhaps I'm just being unabashedly exhibitionistic? Likely it's all of the above...

This photo of me was taken by the very intelligent, analytical and talented photographer, Roberto Pieraccini, you can view his site at www.robertopieraccini.com.

Eagerly Anticipating Camp-iness

I have been eagerly anticipating pictures from photographer Ben DeCamp from our shoot last week. Funnest shoot ever, felt like I was 15 and fooling around in front my buddy's camera.
(Check his portfolio and bio out at www.thestyleshark.com and www.killerwhalepettingzoo.com).
I just got a few of the pics emailed to me, still waiting for more. but there's the teaser!p.s.
I am going to keep my face out of this blog for a little while longer (remember...my striptease).

Welcome...to me

This would be my first blog ever, unless you count myspace which I was using a couple of years ago- but then it wasn't like this, I wasn't blogging about one particular topic and anonymously at that (though I don't know how long I can stay anonymous, apparently I am itching to come out of the closet, thus the reason for the blog?)
So what am I talking about? I am talking about getting naked. No, not being a tree hugging nudist resort visiting type naked (all the power to naked people everywhere though), but being photographed naked.
Out of seemingly nowhere, last month I invited photographers to take photos of me naked.
I beckoned to the photographers with some personal information about me, one being that I am a fashion stylist. Not sure why I found it so important to state, maybe I am hiding behind gimmicky irony to save face? But if that was the case, why do I allow myself to be photographed with my face?
I just randomly remembered something I learned in highschool (a Yeshiva, ironically...again); The Talmud teaches that if one has a desire to kill he should sublimate his desire and become a butcher.
I feel like I'm giving away more about myself than I should.
This is supposed to be a slow and seductive striptease.
So I'll readjust myself and button my coat, but I'll keep my gloves off...
(Image above is by photographer Patrick D. Wade, check his work out at www.patrickdwade.com)