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Well it has been a while since my last rant…in fact I have been having recurring fevers from some exotic disease that is so exotic it probably doesn’t exist, and sunning myself in Portugal. With all that going on not much time for ranting. However, here I am again taking on the subjects and issues that appear to me to be important. To quote the Good Book, or The Byrds, depending on which is your cup of tea, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…”. While I have spent the last forty years worrying about whether a rim light should be six inches higher or the fill light 1/3rd of a stop brighter, I now have come to the time when I like to consider the bigger issues.

The 1980’s and early 90’s were the golden era for glamour photography and by good fortune it was the time when I was at the peak of my powers; physically, mentally and professionally. The business was awash with opportunities for publishing ones work and plenty of people with very deep pockets to finance it all. What a very different picture we now see. I recall being sent to Australia to shoot a “Playmate Revisited” pictorial. I asked the editor in charge of the project what budget did I have for this shooting. After a lengthy pause and a look of some incredulity flitting across her face I received the answer….”budget….the budget is whatever it takes to do it”. Call it profligate waste or call it affording the photographer and his crew the means to produce outstanding work. Either way to hear such an answer was the norm. Try that one on for size today.

As usual I digress. The trouble with rants is just that…keeping focus…bit like photography really. What I really want to talk about is….what has happened to the natural woman. The period I am talking about is the last era of the ‘natural woman’. For those of you who remember I will concede that hair sometimes got a bit big and shoulder pads were way out of line. It was however, most of the time the model’s own hair. As were all the other bits. To be a model then you had to be born good looking and and have a fine body. Of course some were already playing with surgery, implants and such, but 95% of the models I photographed at that time were all natural. Now only 10% are. There was not the obsession we see today with infeasibly large breasts, often stuck on like two halves of some genetically modified grapefruit with no sense of proportion or propriety. Some augmented breasts work fine, with a perfection that makes the real thing look like their poor cousin.

It is not the fact the women today seem to want everything enhance…breasts, lips, hair and other bits we shall not mention here. It is the underlying reason for doing this and I perceive this to be somewhat troublesome. It is almost as if feminism never happened…I can here them turning in their brogues right now. It is that some women have sold out completely to the stereotypical male idea of what an attractive woman should have in terms of attributes. It is one thing to wish to enhance one’s looks to feel better and more self confident….and quite another to fabricate yourself as the ‘wet dream’ of some male fantasy

It is often said when America sneezes European catches a cold…some ten years later. And I point my finger firmly across the pond. Take the pressure off these young women and young women take the pressure off yourselves. It really is not necessary to pander to puerile fantasies of men. Wearing my “man hat” for a moment I would say we like all types and shapes of women. You do have to to conform to this caricature. The ‘golden era’ of glamour photography embraced women of all types from flat chested to full figured. That is healthy…and normal…because that is how women are built. Let us encourage these young ladies to be themselves. The same goes for tattoos. As a mark of individuality surely the way to go now is to have no tattoos. I know not of one editor or art director who is crazy for tattooed women (unless they are involved in fetish or tattoo specific publications). Quite the contrary. So if you are thinking of modelling as a career, think about how you present yourself. The secret of success in modelling is and always has been versatility.