Nude, shot with a Nikon 50mm ƒ1.8D

I found out this week that one of my favorite collaborators and muse Sera will be moving back to the contiguous 48 states!  We had lots of fun together and she helped me learn some pretty cool things during the two years her and I have been working together.  I will certainly miss her talent and skill as a model as well as her personality.  It’s a bummer for me for sure.   Although there is some sadness associated with this news I wish all the best in her endeavours and I hope that one day our paths cross again.

At the moment I’m looking for a new muse and collaborator.  I know that Sera won’t be replaced but maybe I can find another muse who can inspire new art. if you’d like to give it a whirl send me a message.

Of course knowing what you want to achieve is the key.  I started this without thinking about what it was that I wanted to do. I knew that I wanted to shoot nudes, but what kind of nudes.  I knew that I didn’t want to do porn.  But that was really it.  I had no knowledge of glamour nudes, artistic nudes, simple nudes, plain nudes, The list goes on.  After each shoot I’ve been looking at the images and seeing what I’ve captured and I’ve started to see styles emerge with each model.  I have found that one model might be more suited to glamour nudes or artistic nudes.  But what I have struggled with is how to define glamour or artistic nudes.  How do you convey this to a model so that you capture the images that you want to capture?

So I’ve been thinking about definitions for the different kinds of nudes and I’ve also been searching the web looking for what others think about this and I found a site that provides a definition of their style.  The site is DOMAI.com which is known for their simple nudes style.  The owner offers his definition of the simple nudes style which I find to be interesting.

Another site which has helped me to figure this out is imageofmuse.com.  I read her biography and my mind was opened to the idea of a model being more than just a model but being an artist.  When I started this journey, my first shoot was with a model who I would say is an artist just as much as any photographer.  I really enjoyed collaborating with her because she had some tremendous ideas and it really helped to make the shoot a great one.  Ever since this shoot I have always enjoyed the ideas that the models come up with more than my ideas.  It’s exciting to see what others create and in turn it excites the model about working with the photographer.  excitement generates positive energy, and positive energy is always a good thing.  In an indirect way, Muse has helped me to solidify those ideas and really let me see a model working as an artist and what is truly possible when you allow a collaborative relationship to develop.

Today I feel a certain understanding of where it is I’m going and what it is I want to do with this thing called nudes.  My own ideas are just now starting to develop and I am extremely excited about the future and the art that is to be created.

Aloha,
Jason Tag

Of course this raises some interesting questions. Who would own the copyrights if the images contain ideas of both Photographer and Muse? Can the images be published? Under what circumstances can they be published? Who benefits from the publication?

As I wrestled with the issues of this type of artistic endeavour. I came up with a few ideas. This would be a relationship where the model isn’t being paid to pose for a photographer because the Muse is working as an artist as well. This is not to say that the Muse wold not be able to make money from her work. In this kind of collaboration, the Muse should have the rights to publish any photos from this endeavour commercially. And maybe the Photographer should be allowed to publish the work but only in a limited capacity. For example, the Muse could sell the work as prints and the Photographer could only publish through the web at a slightly lower resolution.

The problem that arises is that both Modeling and Photography are inherently expensive. A models time is valuable and if they’re buying wardrobe or accessories for shoots it can get very expensive. Photographers of course have the cost and maintenace of the equipment to worry about as well as their time. So both persons would have a need to publish the work commercially to recover any costs incurred in the process and to make a profit in order to continue working in this manner. Who has what rights and how the work should be published is up to the Muse and Photographer to agree upon.

I am definetly interested in this idea and I’ll have to spend more time thinking about it.