Exploring femininity with Vivi Blue

A few months ago I put out a casting looking for a female model to photograph alongside another photographer and was delighted with Vivi responded. We organised a shoot at her home, which was a new experience for me, as previously I had either shot in a studio or fashion outside.

The first few sets we did mainly focused on the use of natural light in Vivi's bedroom, I decided to work on the art-nude style images first, moving to lingerie later, as that way there are no marks on the model's skin from clothing/bra straps etc. (something I've learnt from several years of being an art-nude model myself)!

I really love the way Vivi combines feminine delicacy with subtle glamour/eroticism in her posing and expression. I think the soft natural light combined with the colours of the room add a very typically feminine quality to these images.

I was mainly using my 50mm lens for this shoot and tried to force myself to use a tighter crop. I feel that on some of my previous photographs I have tried to be cautious with cropping to give me the most flexibility in post-processing, however I think it is much more productive to try and do all the work in camera and really capture the mood and emotions present at the time of shooting rather than trying to see the image differently later on (that said, I have still cropped some of these images a little differently in post just to get the most aesthetically appealing image as a result, though this is more a case of aligning things more neatly and looking at how the image is divided into thirds - all things to work on in future).

The above two images are ones that I particularly like. The left image I feel is the more in keeping with my themes of delicacy, it feels a much more intimate pose and the soft lighting with the natural skin tones next to the flowers, I feel all combine to appeal to my feminine ideals. The image on the right, is a more 'typical' art-nude pose. Here I used a plan wall as a backdrop and used one single studio light to create the harsh shadows. I often see figurative photography done in black and white and I think here it helps distance from it being a personal, intimate image and focuses more on the shape and tone of the female body in perhaps a more anatomical way. Both styles I like and would like to continue experimenting with further.

To create a change of style and experiment with something that is again quite new to me, we worked on some ‘glamour’ style portraiture. As I’ve been exploring the idea of the male gaze vs. that of a female artist, I thought it would be interesting to see how this genre came across. I think things such as the slightly open moth and very sensual facial expressions do tend to lead towards a typically masculine viewpoint, however, as a woman I really like these (especially the image below). I feel that they capture Vivi’s beauty and I don’t think images that have some element or suggestion of sex/eroticism should necessarily be all about the male. I think embracing a woman’s sexuality and pleasure is a very empowering thing that is certainly not always created just to ‘satisfy’ a male viewer. This concept definitely interests me and is something I am keen to pursue.