Resources Practical Advice Naturist Photography Techniques - Being Creative
Techniques - Being Creative
I'm not sure what naturist photography actually is. Here are some thoughts I posted to uk.rec.naturist:-
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Whether there is an answer to Tim's question '...if there is such a thing as "naturist" photography, how is it defined?' I am not sure. Most of the "naturist" photography I have seen seems to involve a straightforward portrait with the common thread of an outdoor location. These pictures rarely do more than illustrate a naturist or naturist location, and in that respect serve a function usually quite well. To create any real expression is much more difficult since powerful photographs often create their message through suggestion. Suggestion in the human form comes mainly from facial expression or posture, and avoiding erotic suggestion if the intention is "naturist" is perhaps almost impossible; take John Swannell's work for example, both depicting the nude in outdoor settings ? I personally have tried to create pictures of us which depict mainly the beauty of the landscape, but also the person obviously in rapport with the land, and have been praised for avoiding any "glamour" content. They are neither pure landscape nor figure studies, but I feel they are the perfect naturist pictures - for me anyway - since they represent us in our own naturist experience; and I think that is the most important thing of all in photography - do it for yourself, and if someone else likes it then that is a bonus. |
Some of my pictures have used the outdoor setting to the full, such as placing my model in a waterfall and blurring the water. Others have successfully made the model a very small but obvious part of the wider and impressive landscape. For the reasons I have described above, creativity without creating erotic suggestion is very difficult. It is an emotive subject, often arousing strong opinions since naturists are very careful to squash any suggestion that naturism is linked with sex. In photography, the line between depicting naturism and depicting sexuality is a fine one, and may be impossible, since the viewer will have his or her own response to the picture that is ultimately beyond the control of the photographer.
Being creative is also in the mind (to that end I have tried to avoid discussions around special effects filters or wildly-distorting lenses since anyone can experiment with those to their heart's content).