PHOTO SHOOTS THAT GO AWRY (REVISED)

Gee, it's scary to think about photo shoots that go awry, that just don't have any juice. Maybe it's especially scary in adult media which is supposed to be about passion and lack of inhibition. 

What if a model has a bad day? What if the photographer has a bad day? What if they both have a bad day at the same time?

I'm guessing that's what happened here (above). The shoot wasn't working out so the photographer decided to make a joke out of it. 

Fortunately this model had a knack for comedy.

The horrible truth is that not every model is photogenic. This girl (above) probably got the job because she looks good in real life, but the truth is that she doesn't photograph. The camera doesn't love her. What do you do when you get a subject like that? Do photographers have a Plan B that enables them to save the shoot?

It's a strange but true fact that some women with good bodies (above) just aren't that interesting when naked, at least not in pictures. Here's (above) a girl taking her clothes off and there's no emotional impact. It's just information.

Apparently nudity is a state of mind. In order to read as naked a model has to feel naked. She has to project a feeling of vulnerability or of being in a special state where ordinary rules don't apply.

Or maybe I'm wrong. This girl (above) seems vulnerable enough, but the nakedness only barely reads. Why is that?

 The use of flat lighting and awkward composition seems deliberate. I wish I knew the story behind this.

Once again, the same model (above). Now this is a really scary picture. This girl's good looking, but she's completely devoid of sex appeal. That's unusual. Almost every human being and even some department store mannequins exude some degree of sexuality. Whatever subtle cues make up that quality are completely missing here. I can only imagine the panic the photographer felt when he realized that he had a rogue model on his hands.

I suppose the poor guy continued to shoot anyway, in the hope that some unusual truth
would come out of it. It does sometimes. Women like Veronica Lake can be sexy even when they're cold but, really, how often does that happen?

My guess is that lots of otherwise unsuccessful shoots were saved by alcohol, which has the ability to reset emotions in some people.

It's risky, though. 

Sometimes weird pictures (above) can save a shoot. Actually, this shoot didn't need saving. The model succeeds in being sexy in an odd way.

Well, that's it. So far as I can tell, the human body is still the most popular subject in the visual arts.

My apology to the model I called sexless, if it turns out that I was wrong. Sometimes the camera adds or subtracts in unpredictable ways.