Untitled

Trying to get the tonalities right in an Irving Penn sort of way.

This is not a pin-up nude so please don't judge it that way.

The unfortunate thing about non-pin-up nudes is that a lot of people, particularly those who post to the PN nudes section and do a lot of the rating here, simply don't get them and are looking more for soft-core porn than for engaging or personal photos.

What I see in Penn's nudes, if that's what you're going for here, are more extremes. Not necessarily what would feel like higher contrast, but more bold moves in the lights and the darks. This photo has a softer and more subtle feel than a lot of Penn's nudes, which are still soft but often have a brightness to them that is highly energized and stylized. There are also darks that are quite deep and mysterious. One thing I notice fairly consistency in Penn's work are highlights upon highlights, which almost hyper-realizes the lighter areas of the photos. Just when you think he can't go brighter, he does, and it works and really blazes a trail for the viewer's attention.

Your photo nicely highlights the shapes and folds of her body and the pose is one of internal pensivity. Penn's tend to have a more abstracted feel.

I wish more people would recognize the character and personal nature of this type of photo, and stop looking for and praising photos for their thin and typical-looking models, photos that merely titillate the viewer and look employ cold and boring cliché techniques that are often so repeated in nude photography which tend to recreate an idealized view of an almost vapidly sterile and pristine and sharp world.

Yup.  A real person bears their personality as much in their body as in their face.  This is why I think of my nudes as "body portraits".

Thank you for this one, Ed.

--Lannie