Can a boudoir photo shoot help you? Can it improve your confidence or your self image, or help you explore a part of yourself that few ever see?

I like to think it can do all of these things, but I think it’s also important to acknowledge that approached thoughtlessly, it can also go wrong.

In short, beauty, and female sexuality, is a two edged sword.

We all want to feel beautiful, both on the inside and out, but an emphasis just on a woman’s physical appearance at the expense of her other attributes: a simple “male gaze” reduction to just her sexuality, with a dehumanising disregard for her as a person, can make her feel more vulnerable, not less, worth less, not more.

As photographers who really do care about our customers, we need to acknowledge that what we do, and how we do it, matters deeply, and can have profound consequences, good or bad.

So where do we go from here? Firstly, let’s look at the counter argument:

As, over the later decades of the 20th century, and into the early decades of the 21st century, women have gained more control over their bodies, it stands to reason that different women will want to express that in different ways. Some (but certainly not all) will want to express something about their beauty, and their sexuality, in an artistic format. Women now have, and often demand the freedom to do this. (As modern boudoir photographers, that’s where we come in).

If that’s you, you should be able to feel safe, comfortable and free from judgement.

So our responsibility becomes to collaborate and help you express yourself in a way that is right for you, and empowers you.

So to do that, we need to lose some baggage from the past. Firstly, we only work for you, the subject. What’s right for you is right for us. Early depictions of females in various stages of undress were always – even in classical times – made for a male audience.

Now, lots of our female customers do want to create images that are out-and-out sexy, often in order to titillate a partner, or just because. The important thing there is if that’s you, you remain in control of that.

But for others, it’s about expressing a more subtle beauty that is really personal in nature. Your sole aim may also be to boost your confidence, either through having a “bucket list” experience, or through seeing how you look through someone else’s eyes.

So the other piece of baggage we need to be prepared to lose is all of the tropes and cliches that surround boudoir photography. Because these are limiting, and don’t take into account the wide variety of what women may need or want from a boudoir experience. So we don’t shoot from a shot list. We collaborate to create art with each and every shoot.

I hope you like the sound of this approach. We’re confident that we create empowering experiences for the vast, vast majority of our customers.

Why not start a conversation with us, right now?