Nude

Fine image, Emil!

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Originally Posted by gandolfi

almost nude (actually she was...) but shy, maybe..

Verito. 5.6 irrc

9x12cm neg

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A beauty, both the image and the model.

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Originally Posted by photobymike

http://web.me.com/photobymike/mikepi...tobymike-1.jpg

I spent many hours with this model/friend and hundreds of photos. But this is the best picture i could get. Some people are not meant to be photographed.. even though they might be good looking... the camera can see what we cannot sometimes

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If you are trying to make a fine art nude image, I can maybe see where you are coming from, but that's why you would use a professional model. However, I love seeing how an average, everyday person is captured on film. You'll get an actual story and history captured... not just a bunch of pretty lines.

I shot a whole bunch of nudes (16 frames total) of a model today. However, I ran out of developer half way through processing... so until I feel like mixing up more XTOL, I have eight. These three are the best of the shoot (so far):

Attachment 69045
Attachment 69046
Attachment 69047

I once asked a girl if I could photograph her in the nude. She said, "Whatever floats your boat...but I'm not taking MY clothes off." It went downhill from there.

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Originally Posted by gandolfi

almost nude (actually she was...) but shy, maybe..

Verito. 5.6 irrc

9x12cm neg

http://www.apug.org/gallery1/files/4/8/8/7/verito01.jpg

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Beautiful

http://brianthedellphotography.com/w...2/02/pan4d.jpg
http://brianthedellphotography.com/w...2/02/pan2d.jpg

...and that's the rest of the best of my first nude shoot. :)

[QUOTE=Rodney Polden;849202]

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Originally Posted by Maris Rusis

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6079/6...4cc0726d_b.jpg
Nude, Shadow, Reflection

Thank you, Maris, for "Nude, Shadow, Reflection". One rarely sees the genre extended in such a novel and effective way.

Your post sparked many associations in me, from both the title and the image itself: Jung's wonderful book "Memories, Dreams and Reflections" from the title. And your photograph brought to mind a haunting picture (an etching or engraving?) by M.C.Escher with almost photographic detail, looking down into a woodland pool: the plane of the water extends out of view, the water itself invisible, but defined by curled dead leaves that float individually, all over its surface. That surface carries, in the spaces between the leaves, a silhouetted tracery of reflected tree trunks and bare branches. In the foreground, lurking almost unnoticed below the viewer's gaze, a mournful almost otherworldly catfish-like creature stares back at us from the depths. A very archetypal image that lingers in the memory, with connotations of the three realms - trees rising into the air/their dead leaves at water level/the Gollum-like creature half-seen below; as too, past/present/future, and many other similar "triads".

Your image succeeds by offering the viewer a similarly enjoyable layering of possible meanings/interpretations/associations, and in so deceptively simple a form - an icon that hangs suspended from the top of the frame. I appreciated the uplifting and sunny mood - definitely no Gollums here.

The stillness of the moment hangs also in the air, like the breath is held, as the vanishing instant is recognized and captured on your Tri-X. Yet all around, there continues the movement and change that characterize life on a beach: waves swoosh over the sand and withdraw from around the feet of your model, the shiny wetness from the last wave remains long enough to reflect the smaller silhouette, then drains away back towards the ocean, forming the 'wash' pattern around her feet, with many visually rewarding textural effects and light signatures. The smaller, darker, reflected silhouette is evanescent, vanishing as that wetness sinks into the sand and leaves a matt sand surface bearing only her larger shadow. The brightest point in the print draws our eye to that place where reflection seems almost to "confirm" shadow, at the side of the head. Yet there, the head's shadow and reflection reveal less than anywhere else in the frame, so little detail that the head (and face) remain anonymous, numinous and unguessable. So much is shown, and so little. Only the feet, and the sand, and the light, are "real". Yet what do we mean by "real"?

Throughout history, many nude studies have played in that delightful pool of ambiguity that exists in the tension between what is revealed, what is concealed, and what is implied. Well done, Maris, for a great contribution to that long-lived theme and conversation. Your work is truly enjoyable.

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A stack of thanks to both Maris, who's meticulous craft is always admirable, to Rodney, whose experience of Maris' creativity is both admirably lucid and charming at the same time as being complex, drawing on our knowledge of iconic forms and literature. I always enjoy getting to a new private universe with Maris' pictures. Rodney's recollection of his experience is an extra happening in its own right, deserving of accolades and the sipping of a great wine. However, if this is a recurring dream, you need something stronger!

Asher

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gandolfi

almost nude (actually she was...) but shy, maybe..

Verito. 5.6 irrc

9x12cm neg

http://www.apug.org/gallery1/files/4/8/8/7/verito01.jpg

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Originally Posted by Christo.Stankulov

Lovely Anna:rolleyes:

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Yes, Christo, and that's the start. Not Anna, it seems, but Kriss, perhaps. Certainly a special girl. Can the picture do justice to her?

Emil,

I believe you are one of the most important photographers of the nude today. This work is again simply beautiful and as lovely as as the girl, herself. Your photograph displays her with great craft and sensibility. That you focused on her necklace of pearls, the gleam on her sternocleidomastoid muscle, (so very long, thick and strong, sculpted and elegant), and her soft curled hair, (ending ass it does in a flower whirls and tendrils), establishes a strong and rigid axis that splits the comp[osition diagonally. Our eyesight swings from this: to the left, her face, more gently drawn lightly, but brighter, and to the right, mostly delicately softened and shaded right breast.

Her left hand, (raised in almost a modest gesture across her chest), is also in focus and to the left, a perfect side view of the right breast against the grey empty background. When we linger, we now realize that the necklace and pearls spread over her chest, make a complementary gesture to her gracefully curved left wrist and hand. What a rich detail that's added which allows us to imagine relationships and intimacy.

This photograph is so well conceived, constructed and richly made that it serves as an inspiration for others to follow. She shows gentleness, modesty and openness to new experience, all at the same time. This is a sensitive work and you can be proud.

Asher

Thanks Asher - you're too kind.