Kate

Homage to Cabaret.

Sylvia

I've been doing different versions of this shot for as long as I've been shooting, which is about 25 years now. It usually does not work, as hands on the face photographs typically look either stiff, forced or fake. Often, they're absolutely painful to look at. I always think of the hand on the face scene in Napoleon Dynamite! What makes it work are the hands and their owner- the combination of photogenic hands and someone who knows how to bring them to life. Hands can be just as expressive as facial expressions. Hell, they can be even more so- think how much sign language can convey. Human hands can paint the Sistine Chapel, pluck a guitar, maneuver surgical instruments, chisel a David, forge steel, and write poetry. They can grasp, scratch, poke, punch, feel, sense, evaluate, hold and mold the world around us. No other species has appendages with such a remarkable range of capabilities. And yet, so some weird reason regarding photography not liking hands on faces, I can count on one hand how many people out of everyone that I've photographed have amazed me with their hands in an image...

Jade Vixen

Confession: the single biggest influence on my lighting style is George Hurrell, the Hollywood glamour photographer from the 30's & 40's (although he worked until he died in the 90's). George Hurrell never did nudes, though, let alone anything explicit or erotic. Sensual, yes— but definitely not sexual. Everything else about my work tends to differ from his as well. Well, except occasionally, when it doesn't. The image below (as well as some others that I've done of Jade Vixen) is a homage to Hurrell's images of Anna May Wong. There is a little nipple slip in one of his prints that I've seen, but that is about as close as he ever came to showing nudity— and I doubt that it ever made its way into publicity shots.

Tanya Dakin

This is from a 5-minute shoot with Tanya Dakin— short but sweet is sometimes better...

Emily

Early on, one of my biggest influences was Man Ray, among some other early 20th century masters. I've got away from directly emulating this photographer or another. Years of pouring over photography books, though, have left indelible memories that get spit back out every now and then— whether consciously or unconsciously. This one definitely seems to remind me of Man Ray. That is not necessarily such a bad thing...

Devon

It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the ordinary.  ~David Bailey

Meira

Yeah, another Meira. Hell, why not? There are lots more from where this came from...

Meira

If someone considers my work to be porn, although I don't think it is, at least I'd like it to be considered porn with a certain amount of gravitas...

Heff

"Wearing nothing is divine, naked is a state of mind..."  ~ Luscious Jackson

Jade Vixen

invert - inverting - inverted - inverta.

Ajaye

The Lost Art of Removing Clothes.

Genevieve

“When people ask me what equipment I use, I tell them ‘my eyes’.” ~ Unknown source

Devon

"Good taste is death. Vulgarity is life." ~ Mary Quant

Ajaye

Nibblers Challenge— to bite at gently and repeatedly.

Sara

Über sad-faced Sara. You may have noticed that there are not many smiles in the work presented here. For better or for worse, smiling is a coping strategy. To me, you perhaps get closer to the soul of a person when they stop smiling.

Di

Night time in Chinatown.

Meira

I like the movement and vitality of this one. I typically try to stay away from spread leg shots, as they tend to be a little too porn-tastic. This seems to transcend that a little bit.

Izzy

I think that Izzy had more fun doing a suspension than anybody else. She had been pestering me for quite a while to do one, and now I could see why...

Ajaye

"I am not interested in rules and conventions... photography is not a sport. If I think a picture will look better brilliantly lit, I use lights or even flash. It is the result that counts, no matter how it was achieved." ~Bill Brandt

Heff

I love a point of view like this. To me, it seems to force the viewer into the image and become part of the image. When you shoot from below, typically a subject can make the viewer feel as though the subject is in control of a situation. The simple act of looking up at a subject/object can impart a loss of control or the idea that the object is unobtainable. In this case, since the subject is bound, it throws that notion topsy-turvy— which I think makes for a nice tension.