How do the photographers who specialise in pictures of women - from society portraits to soft porn - view the models they see through the lens?
Ben Taylor was one of the chosen few who photographed the Queen on her wedding day, although his gentle modesty forbids him dwelling on the subject. He is a diminutive, neatly dressed 62, softly spoken and almost dwarfed by his giant antique camera at Bassano and Vandyk, the London studio known for its elegant portraits of society's well-heeled daughters - the kind of portraits which grace the pages of Country Life and the piano tops of country drawing-rooms.
He works in a three-piece suit with a white handkerchief in his top pocket, and a shine on his black shoes - he is dealing with the old English families and that is the sort of approach he believes they expect. He is courteous in the extreme, and would never dream of addressing clients by their first name.
Miss FitzGerald was the first client after lunch. She arrived punctually, was ushered into the studio, took one look at the ancient camera, and wondered aloud - as young ladies from Chelsea tend to wonder - whether it took good pictures. But Mr Taylor is used to that sort of thing, and with practised respect asked Miss FitzGerald if he could ask her to sit down.
He seldom thinks he has taken a good picture. There is always something afterwards that could have been improved on: "As soon as you say, 'I'm the greatest,' you are finished."
Miss FitzGerald said she had been made to feel "classical, even regal." No, she did not think she would be giving the prints to her boyfriends. But she thought her mother would simply love them.
"Now, has Miss FitzGerald got time for a cup of tea?" inquired Mr Taylor.
I'm an arse man man really. I love a good arse shot. That's a real turn-on in terms of a picture. What I can't stand is chewed down fingernails, says Clive McLean, whose golden rule about successful pictures for girlie magazines is that you do not photograph the girl you fancy unless her body is the type the market wants.
Having made the mistake himself on the way to the top of the soft porn ladder, he should know. "In the late sixties it was all big tits, nighties, and haystacks. Only I fancied this slim tasty girl, and I liked doing romantic pictures. 'Lovely Clive,' they used to say, 'but it's all art and not enough bird.'"
McLean studied graphic design at Bradford College of Art. He met a photographer called Lewis Morley who did the front of house pictures for some of the West End theatres. Mr Morley did the occasional tasty nude. Clive did some printing for him, and that's how he started.
To start with it was frustrating having to do the "knicker shots" and other dirty stuff. Now his up-market clients - he is retained by Paul Raymond's Men Only - grudgingly take his arty pictures of girls of slenderer means.
"I like to shoot a girl candidly as though she does not know I'm there. You have to shoot a few looking at the camera because that's what the market requires, and it has got to be quite horny without being too crude."
Joannie Allum will feature in the next Men Only. "It's a means of getting into modelling," she said, "and the money is good. It's nice seeing pictures that make me look sexy, and if it's going to turn men on as well that's fine. I just try to make a nice shape for the photograph."
Clive usually takes a day to shoot a Men Only spread for which he is paid £150. His enormous grey Lincoln does about eight miles to the gallon; and when the cleaning lady who had offered to make coffee had gone, we opened a bottle of champagne.
This is an edited extract, click to read on. Reported by guardian.co.uk 19 hours ago.
Ben Taylor was one of the chosen few who photographed the Queen on her wedding day, although his gentle modesty forbids him dwelling on the subject. He is a diminutive, neatly dressed 62, softly spoken and almost dwarfed by his giant antique camera at Bassano and Vandyk, the London studio known for its elegant portraits of society's well-heeled daughters - the kind of portraits which grace the pages of Country Life and the piano tops of country drawing-rooms.
He works in a three-piece suit with a white handkerchief in his top pocket, and a shine on his black shoes - he is dealing with the old English families and that is the sort of approach he believes they expect. He is courteous in the extreme, and would never dream of addressing clients by their first name.
Miss FitzGerald was the first client after lunch. She arrived punctually, was ushered into the studio, took one look at the ancient camera, and wondered aloud - as young ladies from Chelsea tend to wonder - whether it took good pictures. But Mr Taylor is used to that sort of thing, and with practised respect asked Miss FitzGerald if he could ask her to sit down.
He seldom thinks he has taken a good picture. There is always something afterwards that could have been improved on: "As soon as you say, 'I'm the greatest,' you are finished."
Miss FitzGerald said she had been made to feel "classical, even regal." No, she did not think she would be giving the prints to her boyfriends. But she thought her mother would simply love them.
"Now, has Miss FitzGerald got time for a cup of tea?" inquired Mr Taylor.
I'm an arse man man really. I love a good arse shot. That's a real turn-on in terms of a picture. What I can't stand is chewed down fingernails, says Clive McLean, whose golden rule about successful pictures for girlie magazines is that you do not photograph the girl you fancy unless her body is the type the market wants.
Having made the mistake himself on the way to the top of the soft porn ladder, he should know. "In the late sixties it was all big tits, nighties, and haystacks. Only I fancied this slim tasty girl, and I liked doing romantic pictures. 'Lovely Clive,' they used to say, 'but it's all art and not enough bird.'"
McLean studied graphic design at Bradford College of Art. He met a photographer called Lewis Morley who did the front of house pictures for some of the West End theatres. Mr Morley did the occasional tasty nude. Clive did some printing for him, and that's how he started.
To start with it was frustrating having to do the "knicker shots" and other dirty stuff. Now his up-market clients - he is retained by Paul Raymond's Men Only - grudgingly take his arty pictures of girls of slenderer means.
"I like to shoot a girl candidly as though she does not know I'm there. You have to shoot a few looking at the camera because that's what the market requires, and it has got to be quite horny without being too crude."
Joannie Allum will feature in the next Men Only. "It's a means of getting into modelling," she said, "and the money is good. It's nice seeing pictures that make me look sexy, and if it's going to turn men on as well that's fine. I just try to make a nice shape for the photograph."
Clive usually takes a day to shoot a Men Only spread for which he is paid £150. His enormous grey Lincoln does about eight miles to the gallon; and when the cleaning lady who had offered to make coffee had gone, we opened a bottle of champagne.
This is an edited extract, click to read on. Reported by guardian.co.uk 19 hours ago.