At 10:37 AM 11/26/2005, Bob Sullivan wrote:
And this said, I still like looking at female nudes, even provocative ones. Me and Jimmy Carter occasionally have a little lust in our hearts.
Okay, this is what bothers me about photography involving nudes. It's not the photographs, and it's not the nudity. It's the inference the somehow there must be sexual stimulation, lust, etc, involved in taking or looking at the photographs. This certainly isn't always the case, and I'm very disappointed that so many people speak as if this were the only motivation for shooting or viewing nudes. I've seen photos of nude women that I truly loved and admired, but I felt no more sexual arousal or lust than if I had looked at a picture of a building, a colorful sunset, or a slice of white bread.
I also got tired long ago, of showing some of my friends or coworkers pictures of attractive women, only to have them react with crude comments about what they would like to do that woman sexually. They never noticed the lighting, the composition, the color palette, the pose, the theme, the beautiful background, or mood of the photo. They just saw a cute girl, and that was as far as their "critique" ever went. It really pissed me off. I rarely show my photos to male friends these days, unless they are fellow photographers. Even then, it's still something of a gamble that they will "get" the photograph and not be distracted by whether they think the model is attractive or not.
The other side of the coin, is having someone talk about one of your photos with disrespect, simply because they aren't personally attracted to the model in the photo. I've seen this happen a lot also. It's just as frustrating and disgusting as people freaking out over the sight of a pretty model. Sadly, this happens fairly often with photographers, as well as the general public.
Once upon a time, my local camera club was trying to come up with monthly themes for their upcoming photo competitions. I suggested having an "ugly subject" month. The idea was, to photograph a subject that you felt most people would not find attractive -- be it human, landscape, mechanical device, whatever -- and try to actually show your skills as a photographer -- instead of trying to impress everyone with your personal taste in pretty girls, or your adoration of cute, adorable, children or cute, fuzzy, house pets. Absolutely no one was interested in my idea. No one wanted to concentrate on the photography itself, instead of on the relative beauty of the subject, not even for just one evening.
take care, Glen
