THE NAKED AND THE LENS A GUIDE FOR NUDE PHOTOGRAPHY Louis Benjamin This page intentionally left blank THE NAKED AND THE LENS A GUIDE FOR NUDE PHOTOGRAPHY Louis Benjamin AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON NEW YORK • OXFORD PARIS • SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier Focal Press is an imprint of Elsevier 30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK Copyright © 2010, Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (+44) 1865 843830, fax: (+44) 1865 853333, E-mail: [email protected]. You may also complete your request on-line via the Elsevier homepage (http://elsevier.com), by selecting “Support & Contact” then “Copyright and Permission” and then “Obtaining Permissions.” Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Application submitted British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: 978-0-240-81159-8 For information on all Focal Press publications visit our website at www.elsevierdirect.com Typeset by: diacriTech, Chennai, India 10 11 12 13 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in Canada Dedication To Denise, with more love than you can imagine. You always inspire me, and any magic in these pages comes from you. And to my parents, who have unwaveringly backed my every escapade. Louis Benjamin This page intentionally left blank Dedication v Acknowledgments ix Preface xi Part One CONCEPT 1 Gallery 5 2 Undressing Fine Art 17 3 The Body Itself: A Survey of Modes 37 4 The Nude in Context 53 Part Two PUllING Images AparT 5 light, Shadow, Color, and the Qualities of lighting 69 6 Composition 93 7 The Camera Is Not an Eye 113 vii Part Three MAkING Images 8 Working with Models 127 9 The Shoot 135 10 Digital Technique 153 Part Four ExPlOrING ThE Practice 11 Interviews 207 Conclusion 223 Bibliography 225 Index 229 Please go to the website www.TheNakedandTheLens.com for more interviews and resources. ContentsContents This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments This book was only possible through the contributions and inspiration and supported my work at ICP. Per is a master of digital printing, of a lot of people, and I’m certain that what I’m writing here will not and I first learned how to make custom color profiles from him. cover everyone, or do justice to the people who are mentioned. You all have my gratitude. I turned the corner and got serious about making artistic nudes during a Summer Residency program at the School of The 27 artists who contributed work and participated in the Visual Arts. Eric Weeks was one of my advisors. His insightful cri- interviews are named throughout. They gave this book its real tiques helped me to sharpen my artistic voice and shape my first substance. I am standing on their shoulders. Their extreme gen- collection of nude work, and he continues to inspire me now. erosity and talent inspires me. Simply put, this book would not have happened without the My own photos could not have happened without the spirit, stewardship of Über Mensch Neil J. Salkind, Ph.D., who has collaboration and inspiration provided by the wonderful people been an incredible ally. It’s rare to actually have fun talking busi- who sat in front of my lens, including Denise, Sienna, Isabel, ness and even enjoy a pastrami sandwich at the same time, but Aubrey, Damiana, Moon Marie, Tia, and Nekosi. Sienna graces Neil has that capacity — he can take care of business and still the cover of this book. Isabel brought collaboration to a new level keep it light. and is still one of my favorite models to work with. My brilliant friend Damiana was second only to Denise in terms of support I will always remember Zack Siegel, who first taught me and positive energy as I brought this book to completion. about professional retouching techniques, and who put me in touch with Neil, which started this whole ball rolling… Cara Anderson, Danielle Monroe, and the team at Focal Press were my champions from the start, and Mission Control Cameras have been one of my favorite playthings since my throughout this project. Alisa Andreola took what was essen- early teens, and Mom and Dad have provided me with many of tially a pile of pictures and pages of raw text and crafted a fin- them, including my very first 35mm and digital cameras. ished work. Paul Gottehrer steered the raw manuscript through I cannot finish without recognizing Mika, who got me think- its odessey of editing, proofing, and printing. From proposal to ing about digital manipulations, whose self-portrait torso graced finished product, the entire team worked with me on this with my living room for a long time before I ever owned a digital genuine enthusiasm, vision, and professionalism. I really appre- camera. ciate their backing and partnership. Throughout the months of the writing process, my wife I owe a special debt of gratitude to Frank Franca, who is a Denise kept asking, “Are you still having fun?” And I was. gifted artist and an imaginative and innovative teacher. He shows I’m certain that she sacrificed more than I: passing on social how untrue the phrase “those who can’t, teach” really is. I’ve events, doing all the cooking, and losing me to writing over had the privilege of assisting him in his lighting course, where I many consecutive weekends and late nights. Her support and learned much about how to teach lighting and how to allow stu- love never faltered. She has never been threatened by the dents room to make mistakes. He demonstrated that showing prospect of naked women gracing our living room, and with archetypes from art and film is probably the most powerful and her, I’ve never been a “starving artist,” in either alimentary or concrete way to drive home the principles of lighting. His exam- emotional terms! ple inspired much of the material in the chapter on lighting. Thanks also to H. Eugene Foster and Per Gylfe of the Inter- Louis Benjamin national Center of Photography. Eugene has always encouraged June 2009 ix This page intentionally left blank Preface Beauty is character and expression. However, there is nothing in woman is a rare breed, and if you look at most books on the topic of Nature with more character than the human body. By its force or nude photography, they’re narrowly focused. It’s easy to find books its grace it evokes the most varied images. At times, it resembles that are only about lighting, or posing, or retouching, for example. a flower—the flexion of the torso imitates the stem, the smile the You can find books that focus purely on art theory, and you can find breasts, the head and the sheen of the hair represent the blooming monographs—the work of a single artist, often about a single project. of the corolla… And at other times, the human body curved back What’s harder to find is a book that attempts to integrate the various is like a spring, a beautiful bow on which Eros adjusts his invisible ways of thinking about making nudes. Instead of focusing narrowly, arrows. And then there are times when it forms an urn. The human I wanted to trace the overall topography of the world of the fine art body, is above all the mirror of the soul and that is where its greatest nude in photography. beauty comes from. It’s also easy to stay anchored in the present, looking only at —Auguste Rodin contemporary work, and only at photography. There are many refer- ences to art history here, beyond the history of photography. I also This is an invitation to come exploring. If you’re interested in shooting examine some of the technical aspects of a field that has always fine art nudes, whether you have shot some already or not, this book been the product of a marriage between art and technology. is for you. However, it’s as much about art photography as it is about nudes per se. At its heart, the book is about four questions: What We’re in a culture that is obsessed with surface, and we are constitutes a fine art nude? How are different artists approaching the inundated with disposable imagery. This is a call to create photos genre? How does a photo work? And what’s involved in translating that offer more in the second and subsequent viewings. In the United artistic vision into a picture? States, we are also living in a post-Mapplethorpe, post- “wardrobe malfunction” era, where nudity is “not safe for work” and censorship This is an encouragement to color outside the lines. It’s a dem- has an economic motivation. If your ideas are provocative, chances onstration of the vast range of approaches to the nude in fine art are you’ll meet with resistance in showing your work. While I didn’t photography. If you have already been shooting nudes and you’re want to grant too much importance to that resistance, I also wanted looking for inspiration, I hope that some of the examples in this book to acknowledge that it is there, and discuss some of its long his- give you fresh ideas.