spousal support for nude photography

[Ergo]

Take my wife,please.

 

[woodphoto]

Well, I was just stupid enough to actually ask my wife. Apparently she's not ok with it.
At least now its nice and quiet in the house. Nice and quiet. And hungry.

 

[MelanieC]

i have been taking nudes for over 50 years and slept with NONE,so i dont agree with melanie

Having prurient interest in looking at, or taking, pictures of naked ladies != sleeping with models. You may not agree with me, but that's not what I said.

 

[Toby]

My wife's fine with nude photography. In fact she was the one who suggested I keep my socks on so I had somwhere to put spare rolls of film.😀

 

[amateriat]

Ah, the Nude. Ask fifteen people what they think about it (either as observers or participants) and one gets 25 answers.

For the handful of times I've attempted photographing someone nude (yes, all female thus far), there are always surprises, and not necessarily the ones I'd expect. One thing I've learned is that there's always a degree of sexual tension in the endeavor, and that the main thing to do is simply acknowledge it and concentrate on what you're trying to achieve photographically. Of course, from a lot of work I've seen, lots of people appear to have had no idea of what they wanted to do photographing someone nude, and that's where they get into trouble, creatively and otherwise. Very little of what I've seen has moved me even on a base level, let alone a more expansive one, but there is great work out there, including contemporary work, the best of which moves me on many levels.

But I don't think the nude work I've done comes anywhere near that level.

(One thing that amuses me about attitudes toward nude photography: if I tell someone I'm photographing a model in clothing that clearly objectifies her sexually [take a long look at your local magazine rack and you'll get my drift], few people I know will raise an eyebrow, even if said model throws in a few come-hither poses. But the moment she takes her clothes off, expressions freeze and everything's topsy-turvy. This, IMO, has to do with issues pretty much beyond the scope of this thread.)

As far as my SO is concerned, no problem, although I'm remnided of some nudes of her, taken by someone else a number of years back, that somehow wound up on the 'Net, which she was somewhat miffed about but not crazy-upset. This is not a way to establish trust.

The funniest, and most revealing event was when an ex-GF asked me to shoot nudes of her; the twist here was that she wanted these photos "to remember her younger self by", and actually wanted some of them to be "somewhat erotic in nature". Once the "home office" cleared me to go ahead with it (SO was laughing at one point...gosh, I love her), I took the photos, but here was a revelation: the harder I tried to approximate "sexy" in those images, the less-interesting the results were (she liked the results a bt more than I did), and the more boring I found the session. I get more interesting results when not trying (or thinking) at all for something conventionally sensual or erotic.

(Note to Melanie: often, the male psyche can do an end-run around itself) 😉

The final thing about photographing the nude is that, in a manner of speaking, the clothed photographer can end up exposing more of her or himself to their unclothed subject than vice-versa. This can be both enlightening and humbling.


- Barrett

 

[mc_vancouver]

My wife is all for me taking pictures in the nude, although she says, "Don't come crying to me when you catch a cold!"

 

[steve garza]

I agree....

I agree....

I've never asked my wife about nude photogaphy, because I'm not interested in it. I find 99.99 percent of it trite and boring. [...] Almost any nude photograph you might be tempted to take is already there; and imitations of everybody.

This is pretty much my reaction to nude photographs, of both men and women (but of course, 99.9% of nude photographs are of women, for reasons that have already been explored well by other posters). I recently went to a large photo show (the Photo Fair in San Francisco) and saw plenty of nude photos and almost none of them were anything special -- it was just "Hey look, yet another photo of some woman's boobs. Whee." Now that I think about it, the only somewhat interesting nude photos I saw that day were taken by a female photographer.

It's not that I don't think there is artistic value in nude photography; I just think that most guys (and it is mostly guys) who claim that they are into photographing nudes for "artistic" reasons are full of crap.

to hell w/ art. I just wanna get a good, long look!!!!!!!!!

 

[x-ray]

My wife is a painter and works with nude models from time to time and i do as well. No problem here.

 

[dadsm3]

"Have any nude photos of your wife?......Wanna buy some?"
(Somebody had to say that....)

 

[Oh Two]

Now that I'm divorced

Now that I'm divorced

Please visit my site and take in my nude wife. Sorry, it's not a photo, but as I'm a super realist I'm sure the image will do nicely.

 

[edodo]

This thread is full of rich comments! But having read Mel negative comment I'd like to vote for the nude. First it gives jobs to dancers or models that need it. Plus back in the day when I was in architecture school, we draw nudes all weeks. Not because we are a bunch of perverts, but because it is important to know how to draw a body with good proportions and lighting. Its the same thing for photography, the nude aproach are for those who study the representation of the human body. Nudity always was a taboo subject... And for the male photogs who like to shoot axxes well they're in their rights, as long as they don't claim it being ART.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

Ah, the Nude. Ask fifteen people what they think about it (either as observers or participants) and one gets 25 answers.

Lies. Lies!! It's 26 answers! 😉

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

"I just think that most guys (and it is mostly guys) who claim that they are into photographing nudes for "artistic" reasons are full of crap."

Thats what she said.
The implacation is...most men are pigs.

People who are not men are always right, Ergo. Always

 

[MelanieC]

Thats what she said.
The implacation is...most men are pigs.

I'm afraid you've added 2 + 2 and gotten 22.

 

[eddie con]

nude photography

nude photography

My wife is all for me taking pictures in the nude, although she says, "Don't come crying to me when you catch a cold!"

this will be a great way of doing street photography -- taking photos in the nude!😀 i suppose the wife prefers this than you giving in to gas. at least, you get to capture reactions that will be very interesting, to say the least.

 

[jan normandale]

Ergo I'd like you to take a photo of FrankS' nude...;- )

 

[jan normandale]

BTW FrankS.. how did you vote??

 

[devils-advocate]

I just think that most guys (and it is mostly guys) who claim that they are into photographing nudes for "artistic" reasons are full of crap.

Melanie,

You are so right, and so wrong <g>. For me, "artistic reasons" are synonymous with my being emotionally, aethestically, intellectually or sexually attracted to the subject matter. This is true for everything I shoot -- friends, nature, urban landscapes, desolate industrial abandonment, women (clothed and unclothed) etc.

Any (str8) man who says he is photographing nude women for "artistic" reasons --asserting that as a distinct and unconnected to him finding them attractive -- is lying to placate a jealous and insecure woman, or because he is too repressed to admit that he (shock and horror!) is aroused by members of the opposite sex in a condition of undress 😀 .

My S-O's endorsement of nude photography (her last b-day gift to me was the tome of ARAKI's work), embraces the eroticism of the act. As one of the other posters here has said, it is not always sexy to shoot nudes, even if nudes are sexy, but sexual tension is always present, and the photograph is, amongst other things, an artistic representation of the dynamic of arousal between the subject and the creator of the image.

I have also found that women who pose naked do so for two reasons: money, or because it turns them on. Being the subject of the desireous male gaze is, the edicts of feminism notwithstanding, profoundly affirming and arousing to many, many women.

All of which goes to explaining why many women are unhappy about their partners partaking -- not because it is sexually implicated, but because of a lack of honesty about this reality.

..a fun and fascinating topic.

 

[MelanieC]

Wanna pose for some photos?

I find it interesting that all I did was essentially agree with a few prior posts (from male posters), and this somehow translates into "Melanie thinks men are pigs."

As for your request (and yes, I realize it is a joke -- or at least, I certainly hope so), I don't know if you've noticed, but this is a forum for photographers and I'm a photographer, not a model. I also thought, perhaps stupidly, that this was a place online where (the very few) female members could be relatively safe from being objectified. I'm not above "verbal" sparring or fun and games, but your response above, in this context, is both dismissive and offensive.

Would you have responded this way if my user name was "MikeC?"

 

[FrankS]

110% what devil's advocate (what an unfortunate handle for this topic) said!

Jan, in a previous post I've already said that in my case it "depends on the circumstances" of the nude shoot. If I told my wife that my ex-wife and I are getting together for a nude photo session, the reaction would be different than if I said I was taking a community college course in photography of the nude.