Aesthetic (is an overused word)
There are several ‘nudie’ blogs I follow (Beautiful and depraved, ponyXpress, Le Corps & L’Esprit) not because of a desire for some form of highbrow jollies, but rather a love of the form and structure of such images. I’ve also decided that I want to spend much more time with my D90 this year so the question; How to shoot nudes as art, not porn? is one I hope to come to grips with by emersing myself in the work of others.
As so gracefully put by syntheticpubes:
I don’t post things that arouse me; I post things that give me hope.
Hope that the pendulum is swinging away from awful Maxim/Playboy/Cosmo-style photography, away from ham-fisted airbrushing and over-saturation.
I covet idiosyncratic beauty, creativity, inventiveness. I’m tired of average people compiled into portraits that ape beauty like Frankenstein’s monster aped life. Just give me an average person photographed well. As cliché as it is, a talented photographer is one who can make any subject captivating. No one is as good at Photoshop as they think they are.
I don’t think I’m alone, either. Polaroids are hip. Polaroids are forgiving in their blurriness and muted colors. Polaroids can’t be post-processed. Same goes for the trendy Yashica T4. They’re both shortcuts to charming authenticity. They both emphasize the moment captured, flaws and all. Flaws especially, perhaps.
(I still loathe cross-processing, however.)
Nudity gives me hope as well. Not porno nudity, not industrialized nudity. Average nudity, playful nudity, or at least honest nudity. Nakedness that makes me think we might soon shed the last vestiges of our puritanical ancestors.
Via, syntheticpubes
