Male Boudoir Photography

[cunningluvr]

Has anyone posed for boudoir? I'm interested in what you thought of the experience and the results.

The closet entrepreneur in me makes me pay for my camera and lighting gear by turning a little profit, and boudoir photography is hot these days. I get more word of mouth business than I care for - all female. It's crazy how normal women are willing to disrobe for a camera these days. In the old days you'd have to pay a nude model, now they pay you.

I've thought about shooting men. I've done a lot of study - the lighting, poses, post-processing that work for women won't work for men - but I think I've sorted out what would make men look good and am about to cast around for male customers.

I haven't assessed the interest though. While women like it, would a guy?

The other thing I haven't sorted out is my ability to remain professional. With naked women, you've seen one fried egg you've seen them both. I can concentrate on making them look good. A naked guy? I might become my own tripod.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Boudoir? Is that pronounced Boo door - what is that, a haunted door???

I suppose my answer is no since I don't know what a Boo-door is...

Nude picture a ain't my thing... I think guys are a bit more shy about the whole nude pic thing because : penis size.

Porn pictures are a different story because objects appear larger when excited.

IDK - if we can break thousands of years of pride of manhood, and get men to not be ashamed of their endowments when not excited.... might be able to get more nude pics done.

[Virge]

I had to look it up to see what it is. I knew what boudoir means after 3 yrs of French but wanted to be sure. Jay and I have b&w arty pics done of us by a guy he knows but we know better than to put them on the internet until we set up a site so they can't be copied. They're all g or r rated --- nothing I wouldn't let Mom see.

boudoir really means "a place to pout."

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Well I frankly don't see the connections between pouting and nude pictures and especially with ghosts haunting doors.

Clearly the French are more insane than I gave them credit for.

I need to move to France to be with my people! :tongue:

[meridannight]

i just realized i don't even know what a boudoir means.

but i do know the noun is associated with women. so saying 'male boudoir photography' appears contradictory to me.

[meridannight]

and from wikipedia--

A boudoir (/ˈbuːd.wɑːr/; French: [bu.dwaʁ]) is a lady's private bedroom, sitting room or dressing room. The term derives from the French verb bouder, meaning "to be sulky" or boudeur, meaning "sulky".[1]

Historically, the boudoir formed part of the private suite of rooms of a "lady" or upper-class woman, for bathing and dressing, adjacent to her bedchamber, being the female equivalent of the male cabinet. In later periods, the boudoir was used as a private drawing room, and was used for other activities, such as embroidery or spending time with one's romantic partner.

English language usage varies between countries, and is now largely historical. In the United Kingdom, in the period when the term was most often used (Victorian era and early 20th century), a boudoir was a lady's evening sitting room, and was separate from her morning room, and her dressing room. As this multiplicity of rooms with overlapping functions suggests, boudoirs were generally only found in grand houses. In the United States, in the same era, boudoir was an alternative term for dressing room, favored by those who felt that French terms conferred more prestige.

In Caribbean English, a boudoir is the front room of the house where women entertain family and friends.
----

in Europe this word has always had a strong feminine connotation. you may not know what they're talking about when someone mentions 'boudoir' but you know it has something to do with women. so i can't really say i like the sound of 'male boudoir'. that triggers some adverse reaction in me and is a dissonance. those two words do not appear together anywhere. in fact, this thread is the first time in my life where i see someone using the word 'boudoir' and applying it to men.

so sorry, but i really don't think 'male boudoir photography' is a correct term. men never had a thing called 'boudoir'. it was/is exclusively a female thing/place. the correct term is 'male nude photography', or just 'male photography'.

[Virge]

Well I frankly don't see the connections between pouting and nude pictures and especially with ghosts haunting doors.

Clearly the French are more insane than I gave them credit for.

I need to move to France to be with my people! :tongue:

Boudoir comes from Bouder, meaning to pout or sulk. So a place to pout or sulk.
that's my french trivia for the day.

Latin trivia?
we get out word fanatic from the people who used to stay in the temples all the time.. A temple was called a Fanum.

I'll get more coffee and pick my nose now.

[sillyboy86]

I work as a photographer (but I'm not a photographer) so I have shot many photos to a friend of mine who works as a model for the Art Class and these kind of things (once she also did something more... a bit sexy...). She needed those photos for a profile on a professional modeling website so... I had her almost naked in my bedroom that day. Or maybe naked, I don't even remember.
But it was not a proper "buidor" I think, cause there weren't a sexual connotation, was like working on a portfolio/curriculum vitae.

And I used to draw in front of naked people when I was at the high school (Artistic) and also a pair of times at the Uni... I think working with naked models is very important to exercise and I'm really missing it. So my hypotetical future partner... This is a requirement... You must stay naked in front of me, with a lot of patience... XD

[cunningluvr]

so sorry, but i really don't think 'male boudoir photography' is a correct term. men never had a thing called 'boudoir'. it was/is exclusively a female thing/place. the correct term is 'male nude photography', or just 'male photography'.

You're quite right boudoir and males don't go together, but I used the term to distinguish it from other styles of nude photography, like glamour or erotica or porn. Glamour doesn't seem to fit with men either, and I wanted to describe something softer than erotica, but not the glitzy Playboy style of glamour, you know, boudoir photography, but for men.

I think that's the key to marketing this, coming up with the correct term. Male nude is too broad. As pointed out, the other key is getting over our naked penis shame. There are statues of naked penises all over Europe. What happened in the last few hundred years?

[meridannight]

As pointed out, the other key is getting over our naked penis shame. There are statues of naked penises all over Europe. What happened in the last few hundred years?

yes there are. i love Europe. you're bound to see a penis sooner or later on your way when living here. doesn't US have penises outdoors like this? i've never been there, i don't know.

but i suppose those statues never truly identified whose penis it was in there. so it didn't really hurt anybody's masculinity to get exposed like that. today, you photograph a guy and if his face is in the picture it's an identifying tag. his face, his penis. and with our social media the way it is, that would circle the entire globe rather fast.

i have a lot of male photobooks at home (mostly Bruno Gmünder). i'd say most models are average, i've only ever seen a couple of guys in those pictures who truly had a small dick. and, honestly, personally i am by far more turned off by an ugly face than a small dick. there are so many pictures there where the guy's body is just amazing, and then you look at the face and, oh well.... i wish the photographers paid more attention to that than 6-pack abs.