On the pose and who invents it!
This is digital. The pose was her invention, a quick experiment (I assume, we didn't discuss it) If you look at the rest of the series, they are more predictable poses: leaning over the engine, leaning over the hood, etc. This one keeps me looking longer; it doesn't seem to flatter, pander, or titillate. Since the car is already in a well-equipped garage (see background) she should be fine.
I find the pose awkward and contrived, just look at her hands. The fact that it was the model who insisted on posing this way says a lot. After all, what does she know, it's down to the photographer to have a vision and to see that the form and composition work, and to flatter the form of the model in contrast with her surroundings. This just looks odd, unflattering, unbalanced and the lighting is harsh...
If her nudity is an issue and to be covered, then I would have thought it could have been done much more artistically and naturally.
Paul,
Immediately you garnish our support when you demand that the photographer personally direct artistic photography. This almost seems self-obvious and in stark contrast to, "documenting (albeit with flair"), in street, editorial or news photography or without esthetic considerations in scientific or forensic photography. But on reflection, it may not be that clearcut that, in photography with nudes, the muse or model should be directed principally by the photographer to materialize his/her creative intent. Still, your comment does seem a tad dismissive and perhaps needs balancing by giving the following perspective.
With photographers and models who often work together, a symbiotic dynamic can develop.
By example, I once talked to
Jock Sturges about his directing of models. He told me that he just points to where they should "be" and has them present themselves as they feel. I admit to thinking that was incredulous. However, he assured me that there is interaction but not guidance and never instrcution.
From my own experience, I might tell Kate, who models for me, "OK, now you can be "Happy Kate" with your great smile!", as that is her "normal" mode! Often I ask her to think of some serious issue and look away from me. But other times she just moves and pauses after I position her next to a chair or by a vase of Sunflowers on a stand against black b.g., for example. She responds to that particular setting so she fits in with it. I'll give her simple instructions every 10 -20 seconds modifying the basic position in which she attempts to express what I ask for. Sometimes, she then progresses so that she can change positions progressively, each one being a great variation, but all in the boundaries of what I am searching for.
Other models just need to be just specifically directed to a position on or next to a chair, for example, and then they become comfortable and one with that mini-world and it becomes perfect to my mind.
Each model requires different direction, in my experience. It's a balance between a personal communication, an independent self-valuation of the person plus "sense of being" by the model with the emotive "broadcast" between the model and the photographer, (which comes in the form of eye contact, facial expression and verbal instruction). With some models, one has to let the matter "blow in the wind" like a silk garment and release control, to find its transient shape that catches the eye.
In this case, the shot of this nude on a beautiful car, would never have been made by me. That's neither my my need or vocation. Still, I must, being open, allow for the
artist's choice in this matter. To judge it, I'd only do so in the context of an array of images in his set of 40 images. After all, this picture, alone, might indeed ask "But why the nude, if we don't celebrate the form to the nth?", but in the context of the entire set of images, one might find it fitting.
I'd not claim this is "fine art", but it's competent and has its market! This reminds me of the
"Art" work used by Ridgid™ to sell its tools, but modernized to have attitude of indifference rather than "girly-girly-glamor" friendliness, which was also pretentious but also worked for its needs.
Asher
