The Wind Becomes YouPhoto by SB
How many of you are in the closet? No, not sexually, photographically. Have you told your friends, neighbors, family, that you’re a photographer or model? More specifically your nudes, your sexually themed images. How many of you hide it? Don’t talk about it except with other photographers or models?
I raise my hand. I am semi-closeted photographically. My real name obviously is not SB. If you perform a search on my real name, you will find my non-photographic professional work . You will not find any of the nudes I've published on this blog.
Who knows my truth? My wife pretty much knows it, maybe not the depth, but the overall story. My parents know I've photographed nudes, but we don't talk about it. There are many issues that I am not ready to deal with concerning them. As for other members of my family and friends, we enter a gray area. Some know everything, others know nothing. My coworkers know nothing about my nude photography.
Why am I keeping it quiet? My money making job may be at risk if I was open, especially when applying for new positions.
Do I feel shame about what I do? I don't think I do. I might though and have not really dealt with those issues yet. I think part of it is I get tired answering the same questions over and over again. Another passion of mine is restoring old vehicles. I don't share that interest with everyone either. Not everyone gets it and it easier to keep my involvement within a community of like-minded friends.
Will I ever come out fully? My intent is to answer, "Yes." I am hoping and planning that in the next year or two I will be able to leave my current money-making profession to enter photography as a career. At that time, I don't think I will care so much about my public persona.
The last sentences in Josh's final paragraph is a lesson I need to learn and use as a rallying cry to support our art.
We have to stop hiding our work, and ourselves, in order to change peoples attitudes.PS - I recommend you take a look at Monkey Metal Blog. The writing is unique and the photos are fantastic.
I "came out" gradually. In the beginning, the photographs I allowed a photographer to hang in shows and galleries could not reveal my face. Eventually, I grew tired of this charade. I live in a very very small town, and the local beauty shop wanted to hang three of my nude photos. I agreed. The reaction was not what I expected. My niece said it was strange to sit and have her hair cut while looking at her auntie's boobies. A couple other women my age contacted the photographer and hired him to shoot them. One of them netted an image he displayed in another show at the beauty shop.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I have had to separate my money-making career from modeling. The two would not mix.
It's difficult for me. I am a straight shooter, and I don't like to hide or pretend. However, even without the job constraints, a nude model risks a lot in putting her real name out there. It just isn't safe in a sick society that considers a woman who is photographed nude to be next door to a prostitute.
Nuff said.
Maybe that is the point I need to learn. We are perceived as "dirty." As you mentioned, "It just isn't safe in a sick society that considers a woman who is photographed nude to be next door to a prostitute." That is very sad that people are so naive about art.
ReplyDeleteAs an artistic/erotic nude photographer (how do I phrase that so I don't sound like I am the one who is nude? ;-)) , we are sometimes viewed as pornographers and smut peddlers. I think that is why 2257 was easy to pass in congress. They don't understand or appreciate the difference. They see all of us as sinners and 2257 is a way to control us.
It is unfortunate this double life we have to lead. I'm not only a photographer, a serious hobby, who enjoys the beauty of the nude figure but I'm also a life model. The double life is the one that includes my professional, money-making career and the separate artistic side of my life. So many would look down upon the nude/artistic photography but knowledge that I model nude for artists would be the proverbial "straw". This puritanical attitude is frustrating while we allow and accept sex as the primary factor in advertising.
ReplyDeleteThe nude figure is one of the most beautiful objects created and my passion is providing an interesting form that is used in the creation of art. To turn that in to something "wrong" is exasperating to me.