My favorite photography website is Model Society. It’s dedicated to figurative and fine art nude photography and art.
Because of culture’s bias against nudity, we have little opportunity to experience human beauty and nudity unless it’s delivered as “adult content”. As a result, mainstream social platforms treat all nude art as obscene. Model Society is different. Rather than dehumanizing or shaming sexuality, it celebrates the body. It provides not just an aesthetic viewpoint, but reveals our humanity.
So I’m always thrilled when I’m featured on the website in some way. Last year, Model Society began work on a beautiful coffee table book featuring some of the best work from the thousands of photographers who contribute to the site. It has finally been published and I feel feel honored when they chose a number of my images for inclusion in the book.
Below you’ll find the forward by the editor and and a few of the images that have been included. If you want to support the Model Society and purchase the book, here’s the order button…
Why Figurative Fine Art
The art of Model Society can sometimes raise eyebrows. For those unfamiliar with nude and figurative fine art, the question in the arched brow is always, “Why?” Why create or celebrate these nude images?
To that, I offer a grandiose yet straightforward answer. Figurative fine art allows us to see beauty in ways that are usually off-limits. This type of art enables us to see through layers of cultural programming to reveal our shared humanity. We expand our world when we experience images of humanity made with respect and love. This art can show us things that words can’t explain. It can open doors we didn’t know were locked.
This experience of authentic human beauty can be elusive in our loud and conflicted modern world. But when we strip away the extraneous details of fashion, beauty standards, and materialism, we are left with the honest existence of a real person. This art helps us appreciate the vulnerabilities at the heart of the human experience. These images reveal truth and beauty in the distinct dimples, details, shapes, and sizes that make us all uniquely human.
Through this honest expression of humanity, we can discover beauty in others as the individuals they are rather than as objects of comparison or desire, rather than as mannequins for manipulation and merchandise.
In art, it’s not the viewer’s job to make a point or be correct. Art allows us to observe, learn, and understand. Seeing someone unabashedly naked, fearlessly free, and wholly uninhibited can connect us to valuable parts of ourselves that are otherwise hidden away. Few things in life invite such openness.
This experience may set off the fearful alarms of societal judgment, but underneath the fear, we can listen for the soft, guiding whisper of our true internal reactions, thoughts, and feelings. In the privacy of personal experience, we may discern our most essential truths. Without the chattering voices of external opinions and messages, we can disentangle psychological knots and discover the thread of inspiration that connects us all – human beauty.
Through figurative fine art, we discover human beauty is not a standard or an influencer trend. Human beauty reveals commonalities and teaches us to appreciate differences as a source of dignity and reverence.
It can inspire us to look more closely at our connection to beauty inside ourselves and the world around us.
The answer is as grand as it is simple: this art connects us to an honest experience of beauty and a refreshed experience of life.
Enjoy!
Samantha Olson
Editor, Model Society
