I'll jump in here. In my view neither is better than the other, they are simply different. Every shoot has its own individual needs. In my own work I will usually go through a wide range of techniques and concepts, often doing both classic poses and when a model can do it, more difficult poses. Whichever might be considered "better" is the one called for in a given shoot.

Elizabeth Claret wrote:

I think I should've been more careful about my wording. It seems like a lot of the "fine art" nude work I see is pretzel like posing. I'd love to be able to do that, but I just don't have that body type, nor am I that flexible. Can I do the casual stuff and still be a fine art model, or am I just getting too specific about stuff now?

My niche, I'm trying to find it.

YOUR niche is what YOU excel at...It will take time to find that...

I may have the market cornered on pretzel poses, but can I look sexy? hell no...

Even for art classes 99% of the time you will just be given a general direction, stand, sit, and a time frame 30 sec gestures, 5 1 min poses, 2 10 min poses.  sometimes the teacher will be teaching on a body part...shoulders, hands, ears, But yes I do love doing a few simple warm up poses and then making at least one student in class go "oh shit"

DougL wrote:

I'll jump in here. In my view neither is better than the other, they are simply different. Every shoot has its own individual needs. In my own work I will usually go through a wide range of techniques and concepts, often doing both classic poses and when a model can do it, more difficult poses. Whichever might be considered "better" is the one called for in a given shoot.

I'm gonna echo what Doug said.

Not every nude shoot has the same reason for existing and thus what is needed from a model differs.

In one shoot, strict posing would be important, in others the classic-ness of a pose is irrelevant, and instead the ability of a model to convey feeling is far more important.

Jade Elizabeth wrote:

I think I should've been more careful about my wording. It seems like a lot of the "fine art" nude work I see is pretzel like posing. I'd love to be able to do that, but I just don't have that body type, nor am I that flexible. Can I do the casual stuff and still be a fine art model, or am I just getting too specific about stuff now?
My niche, I'm trying to find it.

Jade, the pretzel poses are good, but o are the classic poses. Unless there is a specific theme, the skilled shooter will match the poses to the model, to bring out the best of the model and the concept and not the other way around.



Besides, Raleigh is not all that far from Atlanta??????

Doug Lester wrote:

Jade Elizabeth wrote:

I think I should've been more careful about my wording. It seems like a lot of the "fine art" nude work I see is pretzel like posing. I'd love to be able to do that, but I just don't have that body type, nor am I that flexible. Can I do the casual stuff and still be a fine art model, or am I just getting too specific about stuff now?
My niche, I'm trying to find it.

Jade, the pretzel poses are good, but o are the classic poses. Unless there is a specific theme, the skilled shooter will match the poses to the model, to bring out the best of the model and the concept and not the other way around.



Besides, Raleigh is not all that far from Atlanta??????

I've been debating taking a trip to someplace to see what kind of response I get, maybe Atlanta would be an idea. I was thinking NYC, but Atlanta's much closer.

I agree that being versatile is key to a model. And, when I say versatile, I don't mean that you have to be flexible enough to tie yourself up into knots.

Even the simplest poses can be dynamic, it's just all in how you carry yourself.

  I most definitely fall into Category B = can do hundreds of poses.  I am very flexible and can do classical posing as well.  I do believe that my flexibility does help when doing art modeling in art school/space settings, especially in the gestures and short poses.  I would also like to add that it can only help a model to gain flexibility, no matter how much, because it can never hurt.

it really depends on what the artist/photographer is looking for.  I tend to like the basic curves of the female body to show a elegance and beauty than I do a contortionist type pose.  For me the traditional is always more appealing.  However a wonderful painter who used to live about 20 minutes away just loved the contortionist side of art saying that it talked about how we twisted our own bodies to deal with our hectic daily life.

Kevlar Vest Girl wrote:

I love abstractions, and I love beauty, which is something I can find on the tip of a toads dick if I light it just right. It seems to me that as long as you do what you believe is right, it's kind of hard to be wrong.

Toads don't have dicks.  They practice external fertilization.

OK, admit it, you were looking at the pretty girls when you should have been paying attention in biology class...

Now, tell us again where you find beauty?

Knomad One wrote:

Toads don't have dicks.  They practice external fertilization.

OK, admit it, you were looking at the pretty girls when you should have been paying attention in biology class...

Now, tell us again where you find beauty?

The knowledge some people have astounds me.