thoughts on older models posing nude?

[Jody_S]

I'll make it a question: which "gallery level" photographers have shot older models nude and exhibited the work? We don't even have to restrict it to large format.

Does Leonard Nimoy count?

[benrains]

Sally Mann has. In the documentary about her life and work, "What Remains", there's a portion of it where she discusses photographing she and her husband as they grow older. I don't know if she's exhibited any of the work, but I seem to recall seeing a few images from it being published in recent years. Donigan Cumming's "Pretty Ribbons" is an excellent example (and the elderly woman he photographs in it, Nettie Harris, is the namesake for another, probably better known, contemporary model of the same name.)

[Andrew]

one thing that I'm thinking of was Sally Mann's "Proud Fleash" that featured her husband posed nude
"what remains" is taking it a stage further than I'd persoanlly accept as portraiture
.

[Peter Lewin]

I would suggest that both Mr. Coplains and Ms. Mann aren't good examples for this thread, since their "nudes of older models" are very idiosyncratic: Coplains are all images of himself, and Mann's are still her immediate family. While Nicholas Nixon's series of his sisters aren't nudes, they would fit in this category of "specific projects" (his immediate family) rather than the general (nudes as a subject, rather than family members as a study). I will have to check my two Sturges monographs, but my memory is that any older models are parents of his younger models in family groups, not studies of individual nudes (although my memory could be faulty). The only photographers I can think of who really fit are Joyce Tenneson, and Leonard Nimoy who specifically have done bodies of work with older models.

[hoffy]

How about Greg Friedler? (mind you, the older people he has photographed tend to be male).

[RPippin]

My meager beginnings of a series on older women. Not fully nude, but full of character and provocation. Shot on kodak 2D, 8X10 on Foma 100 developed in PMK Pyro.

[Scott Davis]

I know that here in Washington DC there is a Figure Models Guild that serves as a support organization for professional figure models (including photo models but mostly painting/drawing/sculpture models). Their membership runs the gamut of age, including some 70+ year old models both male and female. I don't know if there is a similar organization in your area, but I'd try and find out if one exists near you, as they would be a great resource for working with "non-traditional" models.

[stradibarrius]

I like this shot. She has an attitude that is daring.[QUOTE=RPippin;986616]My meager beginnings of a series on older women. Not fully nude, but full of character and provocation. Shot on kodak 2D, 8X10 on Foma 100 developed in PMK Pyro.[/

[Michael Wynd]

Every nude I've shot has been over 49. The only male nude I've done was aged 63. I don't like shooting young nudes, they have no character.

[life_in_sepia]

I am curious how "older", for lack of a better word, would be willing to pose nude. I think that we are missing much of the wonderful fine art nude work that can be made with an older model. Our culture has placed a premium on youthful beauty are are overlooking the beauty of the mature. IMO so much of the beauty of a fine art nude comes through from the attitude of the model. An older woman can exude confidence and elegant beauty with her body and the photographer should work with her to capture that beauty and attitude in a photograph.

I am interested in your opinions....

I'm going to take issue with what seems to be your underlying premise. While I'm not an anthropologist or cultural historian, based on what I've seen and read I don't think "our culture" is much different than has been every other culture in its aesthetic heirarchy of the youthful female nude to the aged female nude. So, while there may be artistic aberrations in this culture today and in other cultures today and yesteryear, it seems part of the (male?) human psyche to aesthetically favor the youthful female nude over the aged one. That's my hypothosis/opinion anyway And being somewhat of a Darwinian in my views, it probably has to do with a propesity to seek a fertile mate for procreation. That doesn't mean that I disagree with your stated opinion or encouragement to others to shoot older female nudes, but I see nothing wrong or abnormal in a favortism towards shooting youthful female nudes.