Without Apology
This project is not about glamour, it is about a meeting of two people, a photographer and a model that has come to be photographed.
In this introduction I don’t want to engage in a conversation about the ‘nude’ as a subject of photography (there are too many books and articles about this subject), but rather of people as the subject for this book.
My story is about the need to explore interesting subjects to photograph. It can be a documentary about places that capture my imagination or images and landscapes from my travel experiences and in this case to photograph people and their form.
I have always enjoyed collecting stories, and photography provides me with an endless number of stories (I can write a book just about the stories).
When a person takes their clothes off in front of the camera, they will sometimes tend to be guarded and distant and other times they will open up and share their inner self with the photographer. It is the responsibility of the photographer to gain the trust of the person that is being photographed, and to make them feel comfortable enough to capture their true personality and story.
When I photograph a person, I don’t usually concentrate on the look of the person themselves. I would rather look at the full background and how to fit that person into the composition. That will make the image say something or just be interesting or maybe inspire questions. Only then will I see the picture as complete
In this book, I photographed women who were interested in being photographed, their thoughts and how they want to be seen and most importantly how they could add to the creative process. Many of the ideas and locations in these photos came about from the models themselves.
This book introduced me to many enriching perspectives. I came upon many points of view regarding art, photography and being a model. I came to hear many personal and emotional stories and I made friends with people much younger than myself. Like many other photographers I believe that the relationship between an artist and a model is the essence of a successful picture.
The title of this work (and book) “Without Apology” came from one of the models. While I was photographing her, we were chatting and I said the image I am looking for is “raw” and she said to me, “you mean without apology”
Nathan (Natti) Miller
