Male nudes and male gaze

Male nudes and male gaze

I’ve had some interesting exchanges of correspondence with other members lately, and that’s shaping my blog quite frequently. Thanks to all the people with provocative views and intriguing questions!
Now, my comfort zone, photographically, involves a large bag of lenses and a female model: it may also involve old-fashioned film. The question I was asked was about male nudes – do they exist on this site? (Yes.) And that led to further thoughts about who might be taking them.

Lucyrabbit is the current leading practitioner here. Her images are always interesting and usually challenging: a worthwhile follow to add to your list, and her pictures will reward repeated viewing. But while they are wry and thoughtful, I suspect that few people will find the images alluring in the erotic sense (but I could be wrong).

I don’t shoot male nudes: to be precise, I have once shot a back view of a model’s boyfriend, and once photographed two female and one male model at a group session with a ’50 Shades of Grey’ theme. Both worked OK, but it’s not an area that I’m drawn to shoot more. Why not? I think that there needs to be a little bit of sexual chemistry for most nudes, certainly for sensual ones. I’m not talking about the ‘artist’s muse’ sort of relationship or anything like it, but there must be an emotional appreciation of the subject: just the tiniest hint of ‘in another life…’ Does that description speak to you?

There have been a number of successful female photographers working in the ‘men’s magazine’ market, and I remember seeing an interview with Janet Cook, who worked under the lens name of Fanny in the Seventies and Eighties – she spoke of a conspiracy with her models against men: complicit sisters in provocation. Sadly, I can find no digital trace of her – though in the course of looking I found a penis gallery on the Book of Man website. Disembodied bits are not that interesting, on the whole (pace, Georgia O’Keefe!).

But I feel neither the necessary attraction nor a desire to conspire to enrapture women, so I won’t be going there. Although – a model friend has started an interesting ‘reverse’ project, asking male photographers to pose for her, naked and outdoors. I’m hoping to get some words from her and one of the first photographers to respond to her. For the sake of clarity, I emphasise that she remains clothed while taking the pictures: it is a very interesting project, and she’s asking men to switch roles, which is challenging in the extreme.

In the same way that there are different types of feminine appeal in various characteristics (women reading: please check how annoyed you are by the squeaky-voiced dumb blonde style, or the strapping dominatrix) there are various types of masculine appeal from the geeky and intellectual to the testosterone-exuding Alpha male: maybe, for heterosexual photographers, one of the difficulties is in photographing someone who is trying to compete with you for something, even if it is not something that you feel competitive about?

Would you, if you’re a man, pose for her?