Light Reading: New Year, New Book Titles

Elegant Boudoir Photography: Lighting, Posing, and Design for Exquisite Images

by Jessica Lark | Amherst Media, 128 pp. | $27.95

Despite its lyrical name, boudoir shooting is not for the faint of heart. But Jessica Lark, who operates two successful boudoir portrait studios, makes it much more accessible in her newly released book, Elegant Boudoir Photography: Lighting, Posing and Design for Exquisite Images. The French verb bouder, translates as “to swell” or “to sulk,” and therein lies Lark’s approach to crafting restrained, erotic portraiture of her subjects. Her sitters are typical boudoir clients, women from every walk of life, each wanting to reveal something of their deepest private femininity without crossing the line into sexually explicit images. The room itself—the boudoir—is a private sanctuary where a woman can bathe, do her makeup, retreat from the world, and, if necessary, it’s a place to sulk.

The environment of a boudoir sitting is key to the success of this intimate style of portrait. Photo © Jessica Lark

Lark hits all the requisite bullet points: lighting, makeup, nudity and putting the subject at ease. She also explains the creation of the all-important workspace, the boudoir itself—its furnishings, a quiet, feminine color scheme, soft textures, the tactile value of fabrics and trinkets, music, even the artificial scents she introduces (personal favorites: “jasmine, faint vanilla and dried roses”). She says it’s up to you, the photographer, as director, set designer, stylist and counselor, to bring the boudoir fantasy to life and create “a romantic looking-glass for your model to step through [and] indulge in an alternative reality.”

Palm Beach People
Photography by Harry Benson, text by Hilary Geary Ross | powerHouse Books, 320 pp. | $85

In the world of photojournalism, Harry Benson is roughly the equivalent of a national park. The most published LIFE magazine photographer, Benson has shot scores of red carpet celebrities, had 40 one-man exhibitions and continues to work for major magazines around the world. Of his 14 published books, the latest, Palm Beach People, is a fascinating and inspiring collection of candid imagery showing the much ballyhooed “rich and famous” at their leisure in one of America’s most high-end watering holes. Many of the names and faces are familiar—the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, Tommy Lee Jones, Brooke Shields, Donald Trump—and each are captured in one of Benson’s signature stolen moments.

Photography as Meditation
by Torsten Andreas Hoffman | Rocky Nook, 256 pp. | $39.95

Making an image under pressure can feel like a wildly frenetic moment. According to Torsten Hoffman, it’s not…or at least it doesn’t have to be. Photography as Meditation touts the idea that the deep inner tranquility of meditation and the act of creating an image—in those critical instants when we perceive an image and make an exposure—share common transcendent characteristics. Both are anchored in the immediate present, demand our total focus and concentration, and only work when there are no distracting thoughts to undermine the process. He writes, “Photography…compels you to find a quiet state of mind, because it requires patience.”

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