
The opposite of a muse - smacktoward
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-opposite-of-a-muse?mbid=social_twitter
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beat
This is fascinating, but I'm not sure it's as unusual as presented. I've done
a lot of studio photography, including a lot of nudes. Many serious art models
actively seek out photographers they admire and lobby to work for them. Many
of them have other careers, and don't depend on modeling for income. For them,
modeling is artistic expression itself, and they are building a portfolio, a
body of work. This leads to a much more equitable division of control between
photographer and model, as opposed to the more common situation of models paid
to do as the photographer wishes - putting the photographer fully in charge
and in control.

As an aside, I've found that models fall into two broad classes - those who
refuse to do nudes, and those who prefer to do nudes. My first model who
didn't come from within my own circle of friends (we were introduced by a
mutual friend for a project I had) was actually kind of baffled by the idea of
non-nude modeling - why would anyone want to wear clothes for art? And she was
stunning. She actually rarely works with other photographers, mostly
photographing herself (I refuse to call that work "selfies"). At any rate, the
impulse to model nude, and to build a personal portfolio, is just as normal as
any other artistic interest.

------
S_A_P
Note to those reading instead of working, this article contains NSFW
pictures.(art nudes)

~~~
creshal
And once again having my own office pays off.

~~~
AstroJetson
And I wish that I would learn to read the comments BEFORE the article.

~~~
wccrawford
I've learned that lesson, and it often leads to just not reading the article
at all, when perhaps I might have gotten something out of it if I'd read it
before the comments.

It's a double-edged sword.

------
davidjhall
I don't understand why she is the opposite of a muse. I imagined that meant
that she had the curse of ruining a photographer ( making them quit
afterwards; obsessing over her alone, etc) after they took their first photo
of her.

~~~
smacktoward
She's the opposite of a muse because a muse is someone photographers would all
be chasing to photograph, whereas in this case she's the one who does the
chasing. She identifies photographers she likes and reaches out to them, not
the other way around.

~~~
benologist
Isn't a muse traditionally a source of inspiration that fuels your creativity?

~~~
wccrawford
I've been watching a lot of Project Runway lately, and they muddy the word
muse, too. Sometimes you can stretch it and say it's still the source of their
inspiration, but something they're _given_ a "muse" and forced to work with
them, which to me isn't a "muse" at all, but instead they're a "client".

------
Mz
_Then I asked another question, one that had played in my mind since I first
learned about the collection. Did the interest of her photographers in the
sensuality of her body ever extend into real life? She counted. There were two
artists she had slept with. I silently calculated this number, over the
twenty-two years that she worked, to be around one per cent of the artists she
had worked with. “In life, this sometimes happens,” she said._

Interesting lady.

------
rublev
.

~~~
beat
Money poisons art. :( I've met so many artists - musicians, actors, painters,
models, etc - who feel that money validates them artistically. It soon turns
into the opposite. You do what the person paying you wants, and then it's just
a job.

