Art nude, boudoir and glamour are not the same thing
Utah has a lot of boudoir studios. Search the phrase and you will find a dozen in the Salt Lake valley alone, most of them with chandeliers, lingerie closets and a hair-and-makeup team. If that is what you want, they are good at it and I am happy to point you to a couple.
What I do is different. Boudoir is about seduction: the gaze is aimed at someone else. Fine art nude photography is about form. The body is treated the way a sculptor treats it, as a shape that light falls across. Nobody is being sold anything. There is no lingerie, no bed, no wind machine. The finished photograph should be able to hang in a room with your parents in it and feel like art, because it is.
I have photographed the figure since I started in 2010. It is the work I am best known for and the work I care most about. If you look at the images on this site, most of them are from these sessions.
How a session works
It starts with a conversation, in person if you are local, on a call if not. We talk about what drew you to this, what you are nervous about, and where your line is. Implied, partial, full: all three are common and none is more valid than another. Nothing is decided until you decide it, and you can move that line in either direction on the day. People often go further than they planned once they see the first frames on the back of the camera. Some go the other way. Both are fine.
The set is closed. That means me, you, and if you want, one person you bring. No assistant, no observers, no one wandering through. The studio door is locked. If we shoot on location (the salt flats and the desert south of Moab are extraordinary for this) I scout so we are alone.
The session runs three to four hours. Much of the first hour is fully clothed while I light and you get used to me moving around you with a camera. I direct constantly and specifically: turn your shoulder toward the window, drop your chin, hold that. You are never left standing there wondering what to do.
Privacy, precisely
This matters more here than anywhere else on this site, so I will be exact instead of reassuring.
- Nothing is published, posted, printed, entered in a competition or shown to another client without your written permission for that specific image. Permission is opt-in. It is never buried in a contract.
- Files live on encrypted drives. Your gallery is password-protected and the link goes to you only.
- You may ask me to delete every frame at any point after delivery and I will, and I will confirm in writing.
- If you later want images removed from my portfolio after having granted permission, ask. They come down the same day.
Most fine art nude galleries I have shot have never been seen by anyone but the person in them. That is the norm.
Who books this
Women and men, across a wide range of ages and bodies. People in their twenties who model and want art in their book rather than another test shoot. People in their forties, fifties and sixties who have spent decades avoiding cameras and want one honest record before the body changes again. People after surgery, after weight loss, after a birth, after a diagnosis. Couples, occasionally. Dancers and athletes who already know their bodies as instruments.
What they have in common is that they want to be photographed as they are, in good light, by someone who takes it seriously. I do not photograph anyone under 18 for this work, and I do not shoot anything explicit. That is the whole list of rules.
Studio or landscape
In the studio I work with one or two lights and a lot of black. The Utah landscape is the alternative, and it is the reason a fair number of people fly here for this. The Bonneville Salt Flats at dawn are a white plane with nothing on it. The red rock near Moab and Hanksville does something to skin tone in black and white that I have not been able to reproduce anywhere else. Landscape sessions start before sunrise and require some driving; the permit situation is manageable and I handle it.
What you receive
A private proof gallery of 40 to 80 frames. You choose the images to be finished. I retouch by hand: dust, blemishes if you want them gone (many people do not), tonal work. Skin texture stays. Bodies stay the shape they are. If you want something "fixed" we can talk about it, but my honest view is that the marks are the point.
Finished files come in print resolution and web resolution. Many clients print one image large and keep the rest private. I can arrange archival printing and framing.
What it costs
Fine art nude sessions are priced as a session fee plus finished images, quoted individually. Utah boudoir studios typically charge a few hundred dollars to sit and then several hundred more for a small set of digitals; my structure is similar but the session is longer and the finished set is retouched by me rather than a lab. Full detail is on the pricing page. Read what to expect at a first session before you email if you want to know more about the day itself.
Questions I get asked
No. Boudoir is styled, lingerie-led and usually shot for a partner. Fine art nude is figure photography: light and form, no styling, made for you or for a wall. If you want boudoir, I am glad to recommend a Utah studio that does it well.
Me and you. You may bring one person if it helps you relax. There is no assistant and no one else in the building during your session.
No. Implied, partial and full are all normal. You decide beforehand where to start and you can change your mind during the session in either direction.
Not unless you say so, in writing, for specific images. Nothing on this site is here without the subject's permission. Most galleries are seen only by the person in them.
Almost nobody who books this does. Figure photography is about how light falls on a shape, and every shape does something interesting under good light. Scars, softness, age and asymmetry photograph beautifully in black and white.
Yes. Roughly a third of my figure work is men. The approach is identical.
Yes. The salt flats, the West Desert and southern Utah's red rock are my preferred locations. I scout for privacy, handle permits and we shoot at dawn when the light is soft and nobody is around.
