Re: Nude

[rand flory <ferret@wyoming.com>]

Forumeers,

 

So far, I think Louie has got as close to the reason most nudes are women as anyone has. But the original premise that Stempel wrote was a bit off. Photography just followed what paint artists had established for centuries before: The woman as a nude is more interesting. Well, I guess the word "interesting" is an assumption. But the woman has always been the predominant nude figure in art for a long time.

 

We shoot what we know, to a large extent. That certainly is the basis on which I evaluate a photograph: how well does it please me as an individual with my own life experience. If I came from a different background, my likes would be different.

 

So how many examples of male nudity do we actually see in photographs? Offhand I cannot think of any. I had never actually seen male nudity in art at all until I went to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, last year. Now I will allow that there may be a place for male nudity in art, and perhaps in photography, but good art would be hard to do with males as we have so little experience with it. I'm not sure I could do it.

 

We could always make a case for this being a homophobic type of thing. Or not wanting to be thought of as the guy who shoots other guys. And I admit there is some of that in me, but if I had a really good idea, I think I could do it.

 

But there's more. As Chris pointed out, many (I'm not sure I would say most), photographers of nude women are female. And there has GOT to be a large number of gay male photographers out there. Why do they not shoot guys, at least as much as I would think they would if it were JUST a sexist thing? There must be more to it than just sexism.

 

The WHY of the predominance of female nude subjects is most complex. There seems to be no absolute answers. But the trend began before photography was invented.

 

peace and pixels,

 

rand

 

 

----- Original Message -----

Making good photographs of nude models is very hard.  It's easy to make picutres that flaunt sexuality, but they are not necessarily good art.

 

And as to male versus female models - I don't find photographing males all that more difficult than photographing females.  Actually, male subjects can be the basis for an entirely different genre of photograph - female subjects tend to be ideal for images that emphasize softness (through lighting or choice of setting/background), while male subjects are especially good in settings where the subliminal subject is either strength or textures.  Example - it seems natural to pose female models against soft window light, perhaps in a very high-key style, while male subjects might work better with machinery, or in juxtaposition with tree bark.

 

Louie