Erotic Photography

Erotica is one of the most advanced genres of photography to break into, primarily because its focus is so relatively narrow. It requires an absolute mastery of the technical aspects, one or more models with whom you have a solid working relationship, and the desire to tell and entire story in one or a short series of images, without apology to the moral norms you percieve around you.

Erotica is compelling. To say that Erotic Photography is about sex is to grossly oversimplify it. Even pornography is not “just about sex”.

In Erotic Photography the nudity, whether implied or literal, serves the function of depicting any of various sexual situations or concepts. While the expression of sexuality is the main goal, that doesn’t mean it has to be the “star” of the image.

Any recognized form of sexuality, or any point in a sexual act, can be the basis of an erotic photograph, from the first glance to the afterglow.

Erotica is often subtle in its message, asking the viewer (or even requiring them) to do some mental work in order to complete or understand the content. Consider a picture of a nude woman, reclining on a couch. She is holding an apple and looking at it inquisitively. This is Eve, and the apple is a source of completely non-sexual temptation for her, not you, the viewer.

Now change one thing. Instead of looking at the apple, the model is looking directly at the camera lens, and holding the apple toward it. What is the temptation now? Who is the tempted?

Erotic photographs often come about like this, where the original intent is some other form of nude photography, but a simple motion, or the change of perspective or the light, suddenly escalates the scene into an erotic idea.

• Photographs of a woman in the throes of passion are cliche and difficult to pull off. Woman can “fake it” during an actual sexual interlude because it is one moment in a line of quickly passing moments. In a photograph, the moment is frozen forever. There are other parts of the sexual experience to get great representational shots of.

• If your model has never done this sort of work before, start with Erotic Abstracts, where you move in on part of an otherwise “normal” nude to obtain the content.

• By the same token, never try to “trick” a model into erotic portraiture. This is a really good way to ensure that you will only have one attempt to make erotic photography with this model. With the exception that your end goal is not real sexual intercourse, everything else about how you should approach a model when doing these sorts of shot reflects exactly the same intimacy as a mutual seduction. If you get your model drunk, the experience will be as rewarding as drunk sex. If you both agree to attempt this with a mutual respect for each other’s artistic and personal wishes, and with a goal of maintaining good communication throughout...

• Pick a single act or situation, and explore all the subtle ways you can depict the model’s attitude toward that situation. Can you and your model make a smile mean “No”?

None at this time.