Light is Your God - Models Are Your Goddesses

Yesterday, I went off on an ephemeral, Zen-like, trip about light. I sometimes have days like that. It must have something to do with my Buddha-belly.

Today, after reading a post by Candy, at the Feminism Without Clothes blog, my focus is a bit more grounded. Although there's still some ethereal residue clogging my neural synapses, my brain is focused on the Earth-bound goddesses that grace our viewfinders.

I've worked around a fair number of other photographers. I generally place them into two categories, leastwise, when it comes to pretty girl shooting: Those who objectify models and those who don't. Don't get me wrong. I don't think, for those who seem to objectify models, it's always an indicator of their general attitudes towards women. (I ain't a shrink and I'm not going to pretend I can write, intelligently, about behaviors guided by personal attitudes.)

Some shooters, I believe, take on an objectifying demeanor (with their subjects) because they're uncomfortable photographing babes, naked and otherwise. Others, again IMO, do so because they've shot so many of them it becomes rote and repetitive. (Too often, I fall into the second category.) And, of course, still others are this way because that's simply how they roll.

Of those who don't *seem* to objectify models while they're photographing them, there appears to me to be two sub-categories: Sincere and insincere. You might argue the insincere shooters belong in the same category as those who objectify their models but, for me, writing this update, it's easier to keep those people apart.

Rather than boring everyone by writing a lengthy discourse on each category and sub-category I've listed, let me simply say this: The work that I consider my best work has always resulted when I've NOT objectified the model and when I've been sincere about it.

I know that sounds easy and overly simplistic but, often for me, it's not. I've shot I don't how many pretty girls, probably a thousand or more, and it is so SO easy for me to either objectify the body posing in front of me or for me to go on auto-pilot and snap away while lathering her up with insincere praise. The hardest thing for me to do, especially given the time constraints I'm often faced with while shooting, is to personalize the model and to reach out and attempt to gain honest and sincere rapport with her. When I do, however, the results are almost always much improved from when I don't.

It doesn't matter how effectively and dynamically I light the model, how much attention I pay to detail, or how cleverly creative I think I'm being, when I manage to secure a positive, sensitive, and harmonious model/photographer relationship in that brief time we're working together, the proof is almost always in the pudding.

The smoking (hot) pretty girl at the top is Cytherea. I captured the image about a year or so ago. I'm told Cytherea has quit the biz, has a new man in her life, moved to Utah or Idaho or somewhere like that, and has had a baby. Congratz Cy! I wish you all the best.