Boudoir photography: Not one for the family album

By

Kathryn Knight

PUBLISHED:

00:01, 24 November 2013

|

UPDATED:

09:43, 24 November 2013

More tasteful than tacky, the new trend for ‘boudoir’ photo shoots allows us to indulge our sensual side and boost our self-esteem. Kathryn Knight talks to women going for maximum exposure on both sides of the camera

Tucked away in Katherine Duff’s

bedside drawer is a photograph album that makes her smile every time she

looks at it. Wearing a basque, stockings and eye-wateringly high heels,

she is perched on the edge of a chaise longue, glancing cheekily up at

the camera.

It couldn’t be further from her usual trend-led look – but then that was entirely the point. Katherine, 36, who

runs her own human resources consultancy, signed up for a boudoir photo

shoot, a growing trend among women looking to capture their bodies in a way that’s sexy but still tasteful.

Huge

in the US for the past decade, boudoir photography – which starts from

around £150 but can cost as much as £800 a session – is making its mark

on this side of the Atlantic, with dozens of female-run studios

springing up all over the UK. 

Studios are designed to look like an elegant courtesan’s bedroom or dressing room – think soft pastel wallpaper, velvet-covered furniture and French dressing tables…

Boudoir photography, which is becoming increasingly popular in the UK, is about boosting self-esteem

This is emphatically women-only

territory – boudoir shoots are not for partners – and the clientele are

encouraged to dress in whatever makes them feel comfortable. Most bring

their own lingerie, from satin slips and camis to suspenders, although

there is usually a boxful of accessories, such as feather boas and

garters, available for those wanting to vamp it up.

‘The pictures aren’t meant to be titillating. They’re sensual rather than overtly sexy’

What happens next is entirely up to

you, as boudoir photographer Andrea Denniss, who has been running shoots

from her home in York for the past three years under the banner of Pink

Lily Photography, emphasises. ‘Some women just want very anonymous

pictures – I have shot a pair of legs in stockings, or a bare back with a

hint of profile. Others prefer pictures that are much more identifiably

them,’ she says.

If they want to go fully nude then so be it, but most, she says, prefer a more subtle look. ‘The art of boudoir photography is in the hint rather than the full reveal.’

These real-woman boudoir portraits were taken at Louise Young and Andrea Denniss’s studios

Women have the option of going fully nude, but most prefer a more subtle look, according to Andrea Denniss

Andrea, a mother of two young daughters, gave up her work as a pharmacist to retrain as a photographer and takes great pride in her studio, complete with chaise longue, dressing table and toile wallpaper. She points out that, although these days boudoir has become synonymous with the bedroom, the word derives from the French ‘bouder’, ‘to sulk’.

A lady’s boudoir, therefore, was a place where she could go to indulge her emotions away from the prying eyes of her husband.

In some ways, that spirit remains in boudoir photography. ‘Some of my customers give the pictures as presents to their husbands, of course, but a lot of them don’t – in fact, they don’t even show them,’ says Andrea. ‘They do it entirely for themselves.’

‘THE EXPERIENCE WAS INCREDIBLY LIBERATING’

Mother-of-two Lisa Armstrong, 53, runs an upholstery business in Leicester.

She took part in a boudoir shoot with Louise Young last May as a confidence boost following her divorce.

‘My break-up left me feeling pretty bruised and battered, especially as I was just about to turn 50. It’s a difficult age for a woman. You don’t feel so attractive; sometimes I would look in the mirror and wonder where the old bubbly Lisa had gone.

‘Then I met Henry. He’s from the US, where boudoir photography is huge, and he suggested that I book myself a shoot. He’s always telling me how beautiful I am, but one tends not to believe it. So he bought me a session as a birthday present. He was convinced that it would make me feel better about myself.

‘As the sort of person who is shy undressing in her own bedroom, I just couldn’t imagine stripping off in front of a stranger. But when I looked at the photographer’s portfolio I was reassured. Louise was great at putting me at ease. She told me to bring a small selection of things I felt comfortable in to wear, so I took stockings and a silk chemise.

‘The experience was incredibly liberating, and when I drove back home I felt on an absolute high. I was so pleased with the pictures that I had one blown up and hung on my bedroom wall. When I look at it I see a confident, happy and beautiful lady. And I love that.’

Part makeover salon, part therapy room, the aim of the boudoir studio, says Andrea, is to create a private space where women can indulge their sensual side without judgment or embarrassment. ‘The ladies who walk through the door of my studio are all different – skinny, curvy, young and older,’ she says.

‘There are divorcées who’ve lost confidence, women who have had cancer, women who just want to reclaim a little piece of themselves after years of raising their families. And for some reason this form of photography taps into something. It seems to produce that feeling of, “Wow, I can look fantastic.”’ 

Andrea’s change of career three years ago was sparked by taking part in her own boudoir photo shoot following her divorce after ten years of marriage. ‘I was the lowest I’d ever been. I’d turned 40, my marriage had failed and I wasn’t sure where my life was going,’ she recalls. ‘I needed something to give me a boost.

I’d gone through the motions – spa weekends, nights out on the town with girlfriends – but then I read about boudoir photography and thought I would give it a go. I wanted to go out and investigate a different side of me. I wanted a picture that could go above my bed – not necessarily identifiably me, but something I could look at that would make me smile.’

Yet at first it seemed she might not even get through the photographer’s front door. ‘When I arrived at the studio I burst into tears,’ she says.

‘I told the photographer not to take a picture of my face as I didn’t think it was worth looking at – that’s how low my self-esteem was. But by the time I left, it was as though she had reset all my buttons. In just a few hours that photographer helped me rebuild my confidence – and that’s what
I wanted to bring to my clients.’

Katherine Duff’s motivation was the desire to capture her body before pregnancy altered her shape. ‘Thinking about becoming a mother brought with it the realisation that I’m going to change, both physically and mentally. I spent a lot of my 20s with my weight fluctuating, and like a lot of women it has taken me years to get to a point where I feel comfortable with who I am.

‘I arrived thinking that the kind of people who do this sort of thing are all model thin and beautiful, and wondering how my size 16 figure was going to look,’ she says. ‘But the whole experience was fabulous and when I saw the pictures I was blown away – I just kept thinking, “Is that really me?” It was recognisably me, just an enhanced version. This type of shoot makes you think who you are is fine. It made me feel able to celebrate who I am.’

Sheila Hopkins, a 55-year-old secretary, wanted ‘to reclaim a piece of myself that has been rather buried in the past 20 years’, while raising her three daughters. She wore a short ivory silk slip and was photographed lounging on a chaise longue, her legs draped over the side. ‘You can’t see anything, really, barely even any cleavage. It’s all hinted at. They’re just very beautiful photographs.’

The trend remains baffling to some – Andrea gets the odd raised eyebrow when people learn what she does

And that, says Louise Young, 30, who runs the Secret Boudoir studio in Cambridge, is precisely the point. ‘It’s not about ostentation. The pictures aren’t meant to be titillating. They’re sensual rather than overtly sexy.

‘Very few of the women I see have model figures, although they’re all lovely in their own way. But they all have hang-ups,’ says mother-of-three Julie Lovegrove, 53, who set up her boudoir studio Reveal Portraits just outside Bristol after being encouraged to take up photography by her cameraman husband. ‘Quite often my customers are trembling when it comes to looking at the photos – they do it through their fingers. But I’ve never had anyone who doesn’t like what they see.’

She believes that in some ways the popularity of boudoir photography is down to a rebellion against the relentlessly uniform images women are fed by advertisers. ‘We live in a very image-conscious society but a lot of what we are told is attractive is a bit of a cliché,’ she says. ‘I think for these women it is their way of saying, “We’re not 22 and stick thin with hair extensions, but we can still be beautiful and sensual.”’ Andrea Denniss agrees. ‘They can look at these pictures and think, “OK, so maybe I don’t look like that first thing in the morning, but that is who I can be, so that is who I am.” And it’s not sexual, but sensual and beautiful.’

Of course, the trend remains baffling to some – Andrea admits that she gets the odd raised eyebrow when she tells people what she does for a living. Some, she says, think the whole idea is a bit naff, no matter how much you dress it up in the language of empowerment.

‘Of course, it’s not for everybody, and I would never try to talk someone into it if I felt they genuinely weren’t keen,’ she says. ‘For me, there’s nothing naff about reminding yourself how fantastic you are.’

WHAT THEY SAID…

Julie Lovegrove: ‘I think for these women

it is their way of saying, ‘We’re not 22 and stick thin with hair

extensions, but we can still be beautiful and sensual’

Andrea Denniss: ‘The art of boudoir photography is in the hint rather than the full reveal’

Julie Lovegrove

Andrea Denniss

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The comments below have not been moderated.

grumpygranny,

Somewhere else, Antarctica,

moments ago

My husband has a lot of these type of photos of me. I am 67 now and wonder what my children will think she I die. They are raunchy but do not show more than a swimsuit or bikini. My son has followed the trend and he and his wife also have glamour photos for their eyes only

ambersmummy,

london, United Kingdom,

moments ago

no different than those annoying soft focus portraits that studios across the world have been cashing in on since the 80′s. How to make silk purse out of a pigs ear.

Spartacus62,

Fulham, London.,

5 minutes ago

They are fantastic:-)

Spartacus62,

Fulham, London.,

7 minutes ago

Gorgeous photos, they look beautiful! For gods sake if they want to do this then let these woman enjoy. Fabulous curves. To many puritans out there.

Just Dona,

Metropolis, United Kingdom,

8 minutes ago

Not right for the family album, but oh, how the DM loves to print them…

MRA,

Manchester,

19 minutes ago

More things to pander to mixed-up mums.

brunettefur,

Christchurch – New Zealand,

26 minutes ago

We have 50 Shades of Grey to thank for this…

dave,

northampton,

37 minutes ago

Be honest, how many didn’t bother reading the story, just swiped down to look at the pictures.

Dave,

Lost in, Burkina Faso,

18 minutes ago

OOPs, was there a story?

davejones,

London, United Kingdom,

40 minutes ago

Have to get your kit off to boost your self-esteem. Says a lot about this country.

Reubenene,

Victoria, Australia,

43 minutes ago

Done to DEATH!!!!! So sick of every woman under the sun trying to look sexy. It’s CRINGEWORTHY! Put it away or keep it strictly for the bedroom, thanks.

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Article source: http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Winning-photographs-chosen-24-hours-life-Bristol/story-20086777-detail/story.html

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Boudoir photography: Not one for the family album