After my read through of The Naked and the Lens : A Guide For Nude Photography, I find myself thinking that the title was a bit misleading. Not in a necessarily bad way, for I feel that the information within its covers was clear, concise, and well thought out.
However, if you’re picking this book up for ideas, concepts, or even inspiration on nude photography, you’re going to find that the larger portion of this book is about photographic technique and practice than about the nude genre of photography itself.
Part One of the book goes into much deliberation about nude photography, and its breakdown into sub-genres such as fine art, abstracts, or nude portraits. I found the discussion interesting, if not entirely original thought provoking. Break downs and thought processes behind the creation of any art is interesting to me, and what seems to be educated talk about such a taboo subject (especially in the U.S.) as nude photography was a fun read.
Parts Two through Four turn from the topic of nude photography for the most part to focus on the how-to’s of photography. And while there are photos from the author and other nude photographers that fill the pages of these chapters, it feels that the nude photography theme of the book is mostly lost. Much of the information can be applied to any type of portraiture, and even most non-portrait photo subjects. There was information about model release forms, and how to find, meet, and contact models. The author discusses his attitude towards photographing a nude model for the first time, and the trust and comfort that a photographer should aim to instill in their subject. But, even these points can be carried over into other genres such as family portraiture and weddings. In this book, there is just a light sense of directing these great suggestions towards the nude genre.
This is not to say that the book is not worth a read. In fact, for a beginner of photography, it has some really great information, including types of lights, equipment, and some basic concepts for lighting layout.
I would say that The Naked and the Lens is more about concept than down-and-dirty how-to. The only real instructing comes later in the book when the author is describing how to do digital editing. If you’re looking for light set-up diagrams, you won’t find it here.
The final section of the book is dedicated to interviews with professional photographers who do nude photography to at least some extent in their career. I found the two interviews that appeared in the book to be interesting, it’s always great to hear about people’s personal experiences, losses and triumphs, and views on their own work and industry. I found it mildly frustrating that only two of the nine photographers interviewed had their words published…however you can find the remaining interviews on www.thenakedandthelens.com, which makes a great follow-up read to the printed book.
One point that I found myself being irritated by over and over throughout much of the book is the author’s mention of artists and photographers, usually citing their specific styles, and then not putting examples of their images into the book. Sometimes, an example would accompany the description, but the image would be something the author created instead of the direct work of the mentioned author. This caused a lot of going back and forth between Google and the book, and while I’m never adverse to seeing more examples, it doesn’t make for the smoothest of experiences.
My overall reaction to The Naked and the Lens is positive. For amateurs to pro-ams, I’m convinced this book is going to have information that you don’t know and probably could use. Will it all pertain directly to nude photography exclusively? Probably not, but it will be good info to have to shoot most portraits anyway. I especially enjoyed Mr. Benjamin’s explanation of social networking, and how models dislike GWC’s, the bane of all nude artists.
Do I think a professional level photographer is going to need this book? If you’ve been shooting regular portraits for a living, there’s not much in this book that is going to help you make a cross-over into the nude genre. There are probably tidbits of inspiration here, but overall you probably already have the know-how to do what you need to do. As a photographer who’s been capturing images of people clothed and unclothed for several years, I did find some things in these pages that I either didn’t know, or that I will look into further (mostly styles and other artists).
Happy photo’ing!