Baring all for the camera

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Category: Professional Interviewed

Self nude portraits - Posing nude for the camera is one thing but posing and taking the photographs is a little more complicated.

Posted: 15th November 2009
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Photo by Kitsch
Photo by kitsch.
Having a long appreciation for art nudes in photography and all other art forms, Jo Wimbush (Kitsch) started focusing on art nudes a couple of years ago. A photographer taking nudes is a common occurrence but what's different about Jo is she's the model.
 
“I wanted to practise and experiment and as I didn't have a willing model, or the funds to pay for one either, I decided to take on the role myself.”
 
Even though she had not done anything like this before, Jo was quite comfortable with it from the start. Although, she does admit it's not something she would have done when younger but in hindsight wishes she had: “In a way, I think body confidence often comes with age but it would have been nice to have a personal record of how my body has changed/matured over the years.”
 
The process of posing nude infront of the lens has made Jo view her body more objectively, sympathetically and she's also learnt to appreciate the parts which might be deemed as 'faults'.
 
Nudes have, and always will be popular subjects but taking your own clothes off and posing for the camera is a little harder than standing and admiring a photograph taken by someone else. Doing this takes a lot of confidence but Jo thinks it would be great if more people dared to bare all.
 
Photo by kitsch
Photo by kitsch.
“I think it would help redress the balance of our societies skewed image of the perfect body shapes/weight - mostly women's but men's too - which the media and fashion world dictate and all the attendant problems with eating disorders, surgical enhancement etc. However, I still feel it's up to the individual and they should not be forced in any way...if you want to do it, great! go for it, if you don't that's fine too!
I only hope popularity and presumably acceptance, will increase to more fully encompass all body types, shapes, sizes, ages and gender.”
 
A lot of Jo's art nudes are mono, partly because without colour to distract it's easier to appreciate shape light and form. She also does a lot of post processing on her images and this includes nudes simply because she loves to create an atmosphere or express emotion in her work.
 
“It feels like I'm 'painting' with my layering of textures and use of added backgrounds.”
 
If you do decide to attempt your own self nude portraits be warned... It's a little tricky. The process revolves a lot around trial and error, focus and angle being the trickiest. But a little planning can make the job a little less tedious.
 
“Often I have an idea in my head before I start a shoot regarding poses and possible treatments for post production but it doesn't always pan out and I could go in a completely different direction! I have ended-up with a library of photos from different shoots to experiment with!”

To see more of Jo's work visit her profile: Kitsch.


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Comments

zed
7
532 forum posts United Kingdom
17 Nov 2009 - 1:32 PM
0

Nice one.
z
x

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DRicherby
DRicherby (Critique Team)
3
267 forum postsDRicherby vcard United Kingdom722 Constructive Critique Points
20 Jan 2010 - 10:03 AM
0

This is a nice interview and I'm happy to have been introduced to Jo's work. However, I was rather disappointed with the article as a whole. To paraphrase the intro, it's easy enough to decide to take self-portraits (nude or otherwise) but getting decent results is much harder. Well, this article talks about the easy part and completely omits the hard part — it doesn't even link to a tutorial, let alone contain one.

I've no particular desire to take self-portraits but, having seen some really excellent examples on this site (DaveGu's work and davey_griffo's Nomates series come to mind), I'm kinda curious about how it's done.

kitsch
6
419 forum posts United Kingdom4 Constructive Critique Points
30 Jun 2010 - 8:02 PM
0

thanks for your thoughts..
i was asked for just that..my thoughts on the subject

(when asked about it, i said i was not up for trying to give a tutorial because i am hopeless at explaining, in techno language, what i do!)
although a link to somewhere else for tutorial/info/advice would have been a good idea i agree :0)

or you could just do what i did, buy a remote & experiment like crazy!

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