The curves and planes of a woman’s figureoffera beautiful geometry to be found nowhere else on Earth.There is a mystical and intoxicating beauty to the landscape of the female form. As such, depicting women is art is as old as mankind’s ability to create such images, and for almost as long, artists of all types have sought to portray the female nude in manyaspects. In the United States, where Puritan standards of decency run deep, full nude imagery has long been viewed as distasteful and depraved. In response, increasingly creative takes on nude imagery have sprung up over the years, especially as photography gained popularity as a medium of artistic expression. One of the most desirable and publicly acceptable types of nude photography is the “implied nude”. “Implied nude imagery” is as simply defined as the terms state. The model is either topless or fully nude, but through a wide array of “strategies”, the elements of the female form which are considered to be indecent to show in visual media are hidden by the angle of the pose, props or shadowing. However, creating sophisticated elegance in an implied nude image is not as easy as pointing a camera at a naked girl and clicking the shutter. Such an approach is likely to create an image that looks cheap and tawdry. The happy end result should be an image where the model is an icon of Beauty Unattainable surrounded by an atmosphere of mystery and sensuality and lit in such a way as to make her glamorous and refined. Achieving the desired result requires some understanding of lighting, pose, facial expressions and post production. From there, you should arrive at an image that makes you proud, leaves the model with a bright smile on her face and has aficionados of your work wanting MORE!
Pre-Shoot Discussions
One of the most important tasks to attend to before deciding when and where to shoot your chosen model is to sit down well ahead of the shoot and have some very frank discussions. Ethics is something that has been disappearing from American life for years and across each and every plane of our existence. However, it is not something that should ever be abandoned, especially when dealing with the complicated lives of young women. When the subject of posing nude is broached with most girls between the ages of 18-24, a sizable number may find themselves quite enamored with the thought for a wide variety of reasons; it’s edgy and daring, it feels sexy and freeing, it has a rebellious element and many others. Unfortunately, that group of girls will jump into the fray and not consider the reactions of family and friends, which can often lead to strife and drama that will knock a girl out of modeling just as fast as she stepped into it.
You can read more of this article in our Sept/Oct 2023 issue of ModelsMania
247
previous post