Boudoir Photography: A More Female Way of Photographing Sex?

Tracy Gow is mainly a wedding and portrait photographer based in Kinross, Scotland who offers boudoir photography as a complement to her main service. “My own style is probably slightly more romantic, cheeky. Not leather whips. We’re not into Fifty Shades of Grey. If someone phoned me and said they wanted to do it I’d be curious, but I do see a lot of boudoir photography that I think is hideous and extremely unflattering to the women. I think it’s just like some people have said, ‘Oh, we’ll just put a mask on and some red lipstick and we’ll just stand you infront of a wall and put a flash onto you.’ There’s no elegance or finesse to it whatsoever. I really think, whatever you do, in all kinds of photography I always try to flatter my subjects and make people feel comfortable.”

Boudoir photography is all about making the client, the subject, feel comfortable with the style of shoot that’s taking place. Tracy explains that where boudoir photography takes place is often very important in terms of both this comfort aspect and in terms of cost, “Some photographers will just work exclusively in hotels. They’ll go to a nice boutique hotel. So they don’t need a set or a studio, but obviously they may have to recharge that out to the client. The whole thing gets quite expensive. I have space at home, a studio, a spare room with a nice bed. I actually painted the whole room white because then I can dress it however I want.”

Boudoir photographs are normally commissioned by ‘ordinary’ women, amateurs, who wouldn’t usually consider being photographed in their underwear or in… sensual poses. Yet, more and more women are choosing to book boudoir shoots. Their reasons differ; wanting a record of or testament to their own beauty, as a present for a partner, or as a form of empowerment to increase their self-esteem and encourage a more positive relationship with their body. In that sense boudoir photography is similar to burlesque in that the tone and purpose of the art form is often one of sisterhood and building women up from their physical body instead of reducing them down to it.

As Tracy says, “Everyone starts off nervous. I’d be nervous. I use humour a lot and always try to engage with someone so that they feel that it’s not such a big deal. What I also do with all types of photography, if I get a shot where they’re looking great I’ll show them that one and say, ‘This is how you’re looking,’ before we do any retouching. Hopefully if I’ve got it right they’ll go, ‘Oooh. You know, I don’t actually look too bad.’ It’s a very empowering thing. They think, ‘Actually, I can trust this person.’”

Tracy cites her influences as being movies with romantic scenes where you “get a pang” and “feel the kiss.” She explains that “I’m always after creating images which are going to make someone feel desirable and look desirable.” Though what is and is not desirable differs from person to person she says that she tends to avoid a ‘pouty’ or coy look in favour of images that make the viewer engage directly with the subject. “Even if they’re not looking directly at the camera I want them to look interested in the moment… it’s communication. I want to communicate something. I find that if someone isn’t making eye contact or is making, what I call, ‘dead eye contact’ then it leaves me cold. Some people love it, but that’s just me. I want to see something that pulls you in.”

While most of the people who commission boudoir photographs are women, Tracy discusses how men have contacted her asking about it. However, she says, ‘it came out’ that one of these men wanted full frontal nudity and that’s not really, Tracy admits, what her work is about. She references how she’s heard this dude-oir being called ‘MILF photography’ and isn’t comfortable taking on male clients for shoots of such an erotic nature. As she says, “You want to leave a legacy of things that you’re happy to get out there. Whilst I am more than happy to shoot guys in a way that most women would want to see them, i.e. partially nude, full frontal nudity in men (or women for that matter) crosses over into pure 'nude' photography. That has its place, but it's not what a Boudoir shoot is all about. For me, there needs to be some mystique, some allure in the image for it to work well as a Boudoir image.”

It’s a particular and encouraging feature of boudoir photography that the predominantly female photographers are able to set their own limits in this way. In contrast to the more male dominated field of glamour photography boudoir, or at least most boudoir, seems to genuinely be about female-lead erotica. It’s time to see how women discuss sexuality visually.