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Editor's note: This excerpt first appeared in photographer and author Harold Davis' recent Focal Press book, Photographing Flowers: Exploring Macro Photography with Harold Davis.
The closer you...
John Hedgecoe's Workbook of Nudes & Glamour by John Hedgecoe,
1985 Mitchell Beazley. ISBN 0-85533-943-8. 192 pages. Out of print, but you can
order Hedgecoe's latest nudes book from amazon.com
.
The first 65
pages of this book contain general photographic advice with nudes as examples. If
you are an experienced photographer, you won't find too much new here. The rest
of the book has a bit of a tough time deciding whether or not to be about glamour
photography, a very commercial form, or nudes, a very noncommercial form.
For example, there are a lot of pages devoted to the benefits of
over-the-shoulder poses and such. This can be very useful if you've been hired to
make someone look good but isn't very on point if you are trying to create
abstract art. Two pages devoted to makeup aren't worth much if you've decided to
suppress the face and focus on the body as structure. Still, you have to admire
the literally hundreds of how-to drawings and example photos crammed into this
vest-pocket size book.
As far as I'm concerned, the meat of the book is about 60 pages of
instructions and ideas for nude and glamour photography in a variety of setting.
Advice is sensible, e.g., beginners should use daylight, with reflectors, and
fast film rather than struggling with artificial light. Examples range from
illustrative to inspiring.
In the end, the book is probably worth the price and weight (if you are going
to keep it in your camera bag, which is clearly what the designers had in
mind).
[Note: I have some capsule reviews of books of nude photography in my
Nudes tutorial.]
