Nude (In)cognito – portfolio exhibit day

Personal Pictures, projects

Hi there,

today was an important day for my photography career.

I had to present my work Nude (In)cognito to the jury for final evaluation.

I’m still impressed with the arguments they brought, severe, focusing on details, questioning the approach, etc. …

I hope I will finally get the official degree of photographer next thursday – proclamation day.

Tomorrow the exhibit is open for everyone, I would be happy to welcome you all to see my work, and that of my fellow students. There’s really good work to be seen.

Adress: CC Meulestede, Meulesteedsesteenweg 515, Gent.

as an appetizer, one of the images I selected for the book. (not for the exhibit, those images remain secret till after the exhibit)

see you soon,

Ludwig

My Nude (In)cognito project – NSFW

exhibition, Personal Pictures, projects, Uncategorized

hi,

My project nude (In)cognito is running to an end now. In about a month we will have a group exhibition with all portfolio projects from end module students in the photography classes at KISP.

I have photographed 11 women in a studio session, and there’s one to come. Overall I’m really happy with the outcome. I have had women from the age of 22 and women aged +50.

I have been charmed with their motivations and their fears, I have listened carefully to what they thought about posing nude, how they feel about showing their body to the outside world, and how the personal situation is playing a big role in their decision to take part in the project or not to do it. And I am even more convinced than before that we do not live in a free society. I would like to thank all the persons that have responded to my request. It has been quite a gift to receive so many reactions, I’m sure this project will not see its immediate end after the exhibit. There’s so many people out there to be photographed.

The date for the exhibit is set at sunday Jan 19th, and the exhibit will take part at CC Meulestede in Ghent.

I yet have to decide on the presentation of the images, the video and the book. I will certainly make a book for the exhibit to be able to show some more work. I will most certainly not be able to show enough pictures to have every model represented, so a book will give me the opportunity to have all ‘models’ presented at the exhibit.

Nude Studio shoot – NSFW

beauty, Personal Pictures

Hi,

although I prefer natural light settings, I recently did a studio shoot. The one thing I love about studio is that you can create light exactly where you want, and omit light were it is not wanted.

Typical usage for this is when you want to obtain a low key effect. Only put the light where you want it, and keep everything in the darker tones except some highlighted details.

I’m not really experienced with this, but I love to experiment with it. Especially when I have a willing subject to experiment with.

I got a bit inspired to do this shoot when I saw the latest book from Andreas Bitesnich ‘more nudes’. He however, is really really experienced 😀

This shoot is done with two monobloc lights (Elinchrom 500 BRXi) and some simple styrofoam boards for directing the light, and a black paper background.

At the left a monobloc flashhead with small softbox (60x60cm) at the right a gridded monobloc flashlight, 50% covered with a simple black cloth, because it was too prominent and I couldn’t go to a lower setting. I still wanted some DOF play so I didn’t want to close down aperture too much either.

Two styrofoam boards keep the light within a small area, and prevent flashlight spill on my background.

I hope you like the images!

take care, and come again soon!

ludwig

That strange thing called NUDE

Uncategorized

Hi,

I have been shooting kids and landscapes and al kinds of other pretty things, and always got a lot of compliments on my work, from my immediate circle of friends, relatives and people who know me personally on any possible level. Comments mostly positive, things like ‘oh how beautiful’, or ‘is that a painting? It really seems like a painting, with all those colors and so’. Or after showing a series of images of a kid ‘Isn’t she cute, and you portrayed her so well, can you do this with my daughter as well (yes I can, but not for free, since shooting for free doesn’t pay my camera – but that’s a different topic I need to tackle some day soon)

Since I’ve started shooting beauty portraits with young women, wearing less than average clothing, I have remarked two things.

1. I’ve gotten a lot less comments trough my ‘personal connections’. They don’t spontaneously speak about my photography anymore, and certainly not about the beauty portraits. The rare people that do speak about them, have one common question: “is your wife ok with the kind of pictures you make these days” (they ask me, or they ask her, without me being present). As if I have become a danger for public behavior, and certainly a threatening factor for the well being of my marriage.

2. I’ve gotten a lot more visitors to my blog, yes, this blog. Going from an average of about 650 views per month, to an average of about 1800 views per month. This means that my images have gotten an additional attraction to a certain group of people. The evolution is very clear, since september 2012 I’ve published my first set of intimate beauty shots, and that is exactly the month my view count jumped up.

For a clear and straight answer to the question in number 1. , yes, she’s ok with the pictures I’m taking. We have had long conversations about them, and still have. She’s my first critic in making sure that the images I take, and the images I publish are tasteful and beautiful. I will probably evolve towards an even more ‘daring’ style of photography, with fine eroticism on my wish list, but that will not be without another number of close conversations between me and my wife.

I have recently had a short conversation with a photographer working in California.

http://theaveragejimblog.wordpress.com

He’s shooting a lot of natural beauty portraits, nudes, covered-up nudes, topless images of young women, in a style I like a lot. Uncluttered, natural images in a natural environment. There seems to be a big difference in attitude between The States and Europe. Apparently, he can make a living out of his shoots, with a lot of young women wanting to be a model, and going to an established photographer for their first portfolio images.

Here in Europe, people tend to try to get a photographer for free, since there’s a lot more offerings from amateur photographers wanting models, than models needing a photographer. This probably means ‘no luck for me either’. If they don’t contact a photographer, even better, they buy a DSLR, (or their boyfriend does) to make their own lookbook images. This being said, I’m looking for models for my personal projects. If you live somewhere near Belgium, and want your beauty portrait taken, I’ll make you a fine offer. Drop me a line, or send a message trough the contact form on this blog.

Now, further on, I recently did two more natural beauty shoots, but I’m still awaiting an agreement for publishing on some images. Here’s at least one:

Thank you for reading, come again soon!

ludwig