The Glamour Portrait

Glamour portraits, with or without nudity, have been the stock and trade for advertising and entertainment magazines for almost three-quarters of a century. But what is, and is not, a glamour nude?

This is a three part answer.

First, “glamour” implies the type of personality one associates with celebrity. In the US, a commercial portrait studio, known as “Glamour Shots” offers the average housewife the opportunity to have a professional make-up and wardrobe assignment, then have pictures reminiscent of those the celebrities pose for taken of them. So the subject doesn’t have to be famous, as long as they “look” famous.

Second, the subject doesn’t have to be nude for a glamour portrait, but this article deals with nude glamour, specifically. 90% of all glamour photography is actually about selling the clothes the model is wearing.

Finally, the model in the portrait must be portraying a character of some sort, as opposed to a “straight portrait”. This is a picky difference, to be sure. The “character” may be a single piece of the model’s true self and, thus, not fictional. The key is that the portrayal must tell the viewer the model is there to be looked at, in the same way that any picture of a real celebrity is taken for that very purpose.

• The easiest way to take a glamour photograph is to tell a piece, a moment, of a story. A shot of Demi Moore outside an awards show is just a shot of a celebrity, no matter what she is wearing. The magazine covers she has done showing her pregnancy or covered in a thin, latex paint “suit” are glamour nudes.

• Glamour is in the eye of the photographer and the heart of the model. Some of the earliest glamour shots were taken of the prostitutes of New Orleans by E. J. Bellocq. Photography is an art. Glamour is a “product”. Whatever you and your model have to sell, sell it hard!!

• Costume can be everything.

• Think of the model’s personality with scaffolding placed around it. On the third floor is glamour and on the fourth floor is sensuality, maybe even erotic intent. In order for you to get pictures of the third floor, your model needs to be on the fourth.

• If a viewer of the same gender as your model comments about how they “could never pull that off” themselves....congratulations.

None at this time.