W
riting books seem to follow my age; the older I get, the more I
write. In reality, of course, it’s not age that forces my fingers to
hit the keyboard, it’s more a matter of experience. Even after thirty years
of shooting, I’ve never stopped learning about photography—especially in
today’s digital world, where technology seems to change from minute to
minute. Still, though, there are some things in photography that rarely (if
ever) change, and that list includes posing techniques. What flatters the
human form today will still work decades from now (and often calls
on the same principles used hundreds and thousands of years ago
by everyone from Renaissance painters to ancient Greek and
Roman sculptors).
That is not to say, of course, that the same pose will work for
everyone. People come in different shapes and forms, so an indi-
vidualized approach is required to minimize each subject’s unique
problem areas and to accent their assets. Each has their own per-
sonality, as well, and the pose you use when photographing them
can either emphasize or detract from that. People also have different ob-
jectives and different comfort levels, particularly when creating glamour
images, so it’s often up to them to decide how they want to be portrayed
in their final images. In other cases, such as on a commercial or editorial
glamour assignment, the photographer must help the model convey the
look that the art director or client wants to see. Accomplishing this re-
quires a model who is capable of providing the desired look and pose for
the scene.
What’s important is to realize that if the photographer understands
the fundamentals of posing (as well as, of course, lighting, exposure, etc.),
then both the model and photographer should be able to achieve the in-
tended image. A good photographer must also realize that models can
sometimes have problems getting the required pose and look. When this
Foreword.
What flatters the
human formtoday
will still work decades
from now...8POSINGTECHNIQUESFORGLAMOURPHOTOGRAPHY