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The Female Body in Photography

A New Way of Seeing

The female body in photography far outweighs the popularity of just about any other photo style one can think of. Why? Because it can be portrayed in an infinite variety of ways: beautiful and sensual; warm, soft and motherly; chic and edgy... young, old, pregnant and anything in between, the fascination with the female form is as old as the mountains.

Female Form Photography

The challenge today is to portray the female body in photography in new and interesting ways. To do that, a photographer has to have a different way of 'seeing'.

'There are moments in our lives, there are moments in a day, when we seem to see beyond the usual. Such are the moments of our greatest happiness.' ~ Robert Henri

This is the essence of an artist's way of seeing. To see beyond the obvious, is not only the only way to make art, it also fills both the artist and the viewer of the image with surprising and unexpected happiness.

In female form photography, the question becomes: When you look at the subject, the shapes, shadows, curves, lines and textures, what is it that you really see? And then, to go beyond seeing to feeling. What is the feeling that you want to convey?

A delicate pale wrist, the nape of a neck, the lithe stillness in the arch of a particular model's back... that is what elevates the female body in photography to a magnificent art.

Mood Images

Women are beautiful, or not, depending on our response to them. Mary Whyte writes in her lovely book, An Artist's Way of Seeing that just as a falling tree in the woods needs someone to hear it in order for it to make a sound, a vision needs reaction in order for it to be noteworthy.

A photograph that arouses emotion is the one that will be remembered, more than the one that simply captures beauty. This requires a different way of looking at the female form; a deeper way perhaps.

In his excellent course Image Design: Advanced Design Concepts, well-known photographer Tony Sweet teaches that subject selection, exposure, and compelling composition are the most important elements in creating evocative imagery.

In my view, it's even more important than a technically perfect picture.

So next time you photograph a woman, go beyond the obvious. Ask yourself, what is striking or unique about the subject in front of you? What makes you want to look twice, see more? What captures a certain mood? If you can convey that one essential quality, you'll be proud of the end-product, no doubt.

Female Form Photography