My Muse is famous...

For those who look at my images on my gallery, they will know that one of my main inspirations is a model called Holly.

Well it appears that she inspires some other artists as well

link - contains nudity - but it's on the BBC News website, so it must be OK

Bizzare. Was just reading that and thinking she looked like the same lady.

I don't believe you were reading anything at all! Ogling I'll believe!

Nudity!!! Oh No! Kids will die!!!!

Smeggy, I thought nudity was usually a pre-requisite for producing kids, not making them die!!!

On a serious note, I am bemused that the story starts off highlighting the fact that an 8ft painting of a nude is shortlisted for a portrait competition, and because its a painting they can happily display a picture of it. If it was an 8ft photograph I doubt they would have displayed the image, or even mentioned it. It's a sad, sad world

Not if you listen tothe fire and brimstone of the prude brigade.

A brigadew that alos convieves wearing thick pyjamas with the lights off


Exactly. The World has had far too many centuries of sexually obsessed clergy and clerics indoctrinating sexual guilt and embarrassment amongst the populace.

The lighter side of it ...
Mormon Masturbation Prevention

Smeggy, I am doing my little bit to turn the tide.

As Christmas I did a calendar of my images link - nudity of course and I was pleasantly surprised by who had a copy. Male and female colleagues at work took a copy home, and their wives/husbands/partners loved the images and insisted it went up in their kitchens - these are couples with children aged between 8 and 14. They take their children around art galleries and saw no difference with my work, which gave me a very good feeling. My work is now on display everyday in over 40 homes around the country. So all is not lost!

The best though was when my Mother who is over 70 asked if she could have a copy of 'Simply Red' (see my gallery) for Mother's day to put over her fireplace, and my 86 year old father-in-law also has one of my calendars in his kitchen.

A wonderful example was Katy Perry's Sesame Street performance being axed because her outfit was too revealing! link Surely your average three year old associates breasts with food, not sex!

Not that a three year old would get it, but the double entendre of "playing dress-up games" makes the choice of that song on Sesame Street a strange one!

K.

Despite the fact that I see an awful lot of nude studies, I feel very infrequently does the nude study contribute to the story or the art. It is usually gratuitous and or exploitive. I generally won't shoot nudes unless the client is willing to pay extra or give me a compelling reason for it.

Now having said that, I'm not for censorship.

back to the OP, congrats to you. As a photographer you have a mutually beneficially relationship that can be win win for both of you when a shoot is done well. That is reason to treat every model as if they were already successful. You never know how far they will go.

I just had a girl who was incredibly excited to get the inside back full page of a national magazine.... who knows... five years from now she may be the one that makes it big and throws jobs back at all the people that helped her get her first break. By then, I may need that job.... this is a tough business... feast one day, famine the next.

I enter quite a few photographic exhibitions aaround the world, with some success.

The general rules are that in the Middle East no nudity or implied nudity at all, in the USA no nipples and definitely no hint of a pubic area, and in the rest of the world anything tasteful (which I would hope mine are!!) will get accepted.

I think America's prudish public approach to this is directly related to them being the world's largest producer and consumer of pornography.

well you are definitely artistic, as far away from pornographic as you can get, from what I've seen... but you're right. America got issues when it comes to hypocrisy. Canada too. That is a huge factor in my decision to avoid nudes as much as possible. Also the feminazi's (or extremely militant side of the feminist movement if you will) make it uncomfortable to work in the field. I charge extra for nude shoots because my wife and at least one other female assistant are hired to be on set if a model is taking her cloths off... who wants to risk a sexual harassment complaint? not me.

I once tried shooting nude but got arrested!

But it can be bizzare. Nudity is not allowed in MTV UK and US music videos, but the amount of gratuitous sexual activity on show is incredibly high.

There is something very wrong with our society's attitudes to human bodies.

Gareth, I'm surprised you got arrested.
If you cover the model up as soon as you get spotted (I have always managed to cover the model up before being spotted) then I do not see what offence you have committed?

Interestingly my wife is happy for me to shoot nudes, but would not be happy with me doing lingerie or glamour shots!

Tim, I don't think you read Gareth's first sentence correctly!
If you read what he wrote (not what you think he wrote, you'll see why he might have been arrested

Myles