Perks of the Job

If I added up all the time I've spent on artistic endeavors in the past 2 years, the vast majority of it would involve photography. Most people who know me personally don't know this, but I spend a pretty good amount of time on artistic nude photography. It always seems odd to me that it comes as a shock to them. It seems to me that the idea makes perfect sense. I love art. I am quite fond of naked women. This is a no brainer, really. But that tends to be the problem. I don't hide the fact that I really like naked woman. In that sense, I'm probably just like the average guy. So, when people hear about my artistic nude project, they tend to think its just a plot to get girls naked in order to fill some sexual need. That couldn't be further from the truth. I truly love art. Almost more than I love sex. It might seem hard to believe, but when I've got a camera in my hand and I'm staring at a beautiful naked girl, sex is the furthest thing from my mind. Okay, maybe not the furthest, but really really far.

The hardest part about being an artistic nude photographer is the perception. No one mistakes a jazz musician for a poser. If you've taken the time to learn anything about jazz, whatever personal gains it affords you are just fair game. The cool sax player who learned to play like David Sanborn might get lots of girls, but then again he deserves to. Right? The drummer in the rock band that gets panties thrown at him every night is just being a rock star. No harm, no foul. Those mysterious poet guys at coffee houses undoubtedly get the college girls at the poetry readings pretty hot and bothered. No one complains about that. Its just a perk of being so smart and artistic. But a nude photographer can't do that. It seems unfair. After all, the girls I run into while I'm working are already naked and staring into my eyes for an hour at a time. That's pretty intimate. It can even be an arousing experience. So, for me to then try to close the deal, so to speak, seems a bit like cheating. That poet would have to get the girl's Ramones t-shirt and her skinny jeans off of her before he's anywhere near what I get to see five minutes after I meet my subject. But is that my fault?

I guess I say all that to say this. Its just not fair. I get the worst of both worlds. I get blamed for doing what I never ever do. I don't get to do what any cool artist in any other medium gets to do if and when he wants to. I kinda feel like I'm getting the short end of the stick here. Then again, I do get to create art while staring a gorgeous naked women on a pretty regular basis............ Okay nevermind. I'm good.