Men, when nobody sees them

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How do they reproduce?

In this story there are storks, nor the father who puts the seed in the flower of the mother. This is the story about the act of how photographs are coming into this world. Yes!

black and white nude by Daniel Bauer

Or at least about how they were coming before we limited ourselves to see them on  computer screens. What will become of the lives of the artisans of frames or photo mounts? The homes became almost completely anonymous. No posters, no family photos or pictures of art. Now we find golden kittens that move their arms, Buddha shrines or simply standardized decor, cheap, tacky, where before there was a photograph.

They say there was a time when there were few who had a camera. People who learned techniques to photograph professionally. They themselves created what is now called the styling, created the composition they liked, or simply used what was available on the location. The community of people paid these persons for sessions to get a personal photo for themselves or for their family. The work of these species was...

The portraitist of bodies

One can look at the same object and perceive it in different ways, have countless varied sensations, connections with past situations, old emotions or maybe bad memories. The same happens when looking at an art photograph.

Can we feel something or have a strong impact at first sight?
And if not, what remains in the photo?

Art? Just another naked woman?

Perhaps the result of a click at the right moment, perfectly produced in its composition or post production, endlessly retouched with photo­shop, and a naked woman expressing with her face nothing but an empty soul in a naked body.

For sure some objectivity is necessary sometimes, but many issues also should be accompanied by some subjectivity.

In the case of contem­porary photography we must look with four eyes, so to say. The involution that photography suffered, left a new generation of those who call themselves "photographers" and try to transform a spontaneous click into an artistic photo by using some special effects by clicking a photoshop script.

My question is clear: What do you see when you look at a nude photograph? The first is the girl in question, that body that evokes sensuality, awakens your passions or your desires. Women want...

My ass for 50, my pussy for 100

A few days ago I met my ex-girlfriend, model and muse Yana. As we are no couple anymore since quite a while, she lives her life as a more and more successful art model and I live my life on my own, trying to do my thing.

Modeling: more than showing a pair of nice tits.
Yana photographed in bed, by Daniel Bauer

But when we come together for a photo session, even a very spontaneous and off-the-wall one, I feel again this natural flow that I described in a recent post, and enjoy the capabilities she deployed since I discovered her as a model few years ago.

That we know each other very well, that there's still a lot of love, sympathy and respect for each other for sure helps to produce this creative flow. But Yana also achieves excellent results with other photographers.

Her success doesn't surprise me at all.

While I am, almost desperately, searching models for my artistic work, the difference between a truly talented and well educated model (I am a bit proud of this...), and one of these girls who think, showing their tits is a fast and easy way to get rich and famous, couldn't be more obvious.


Recently I placed an ad:
"Wanted: open-minded, talented and sensual women with interest in artistic expression".

Although the further text explained that it deals about modeling and the ad contained a link to my official website, more than half of the mails I received came without photos, but with the request "Tell me what kind of photos you want to take".

Without "please", of course: Spanish/Catalan girls are not known for an exquisite style in communication... The other half sent overly retouched pictures who's meta-data revealed that they were taken years ago.

Yana by Daniel Bauer, a few days ago

Many wrote simply "kuanto kobraria?", freely translated: hwmuch get I? The only talents they showed were the ability to express their inaptness clearly and briefly and to insert three errors in two words. Of their native language, nota bene.

Searching on model portals is even more annoying. Last night I clicked thru french sites to find a model for my upcoming stay in Paris.

I saw tons of meaningless photos. Sometimes it's even impossible to say if it’s a woman, if she's 20 or 50 years old, has short or long hair, is skinny or round, because of all the applied "art"-effects.

Others have exactly ONE facial expression to show. Obviously the one of which they think that it's very professional and cool. It isn't. It's just deadly boring to look at such a bunched manifestation of missing sensitivity, inspiration and interest.

Adapted are the conditions. Many want to show up on a session with their watchdog. To have a jealous boyfriend on my side while I try to take sensual pictures is not exactly one of my deepest wishes...

I do understand that a woman first wants to know who the photographer is, before she gets naked in front of him, of course. That's why I always meet new models in a public place, a cafe, first. If she's got a bad feeling or is insecure about me (or I about her...), we simply will not work together. But under no circumstances I will accept a guardian during a session. That's just ridiculous. I guess, more photographers haven been robbed by models/watchmen than the opposite way round. There was a couple that even gained notoriety in this special interpretation of modeling.

Natural sensuality: Yana by Daniel Bauer

Anyway: do those simple-minded girls walk in with mummy on the hand, too, when they apply for an office job? Have they gone accompanied by their big brother to their teenage-jobs to look after kids? Do they really think a photographer would put his reputation at risk just for getting intimate with her? What an extreme overestimation of their attractiveness! What a sad underestimation of the artists!

No, this type of vixen only arouses one single desire in me: keep away from me as far as possible!

Another widespread species is the "model" that wants to dictate how the photos should look in the end. Nice - they are very welcome. As clients. Who pay ME!

With models I talk about the contents of a session and what I want to achieve. It's to take or to leave. But one cannot work with me, get paid by me, and at the same time dictate the conditions. It's simply confusing employer and employee.

To close this excessive rant, triggered by my depressing experiences of late, I'd like to introduce those highly intelligent, very serious girls, who tell me: I get naked for this price, and I show you my pussy for the double, photos may not be published. In these, unfortunately not so infrequent cases I am always tempted to say: and how much including a blowjob? What I really say, is: thanks, good bye!

Finding models is really hard work.

There are some, very few, art nude models, who made their talent to a profession. These are women, like Yana, who know, that modeling for artistic nudes is much more than just presenting tits and asses in front of a camera.

Personality, sensuality and interest in art
make the ideal model. Yana by Daniel Bauer

These are women with personality, natural sensuality and, above all, true interest in art.

They are able to estimate and judge the work of a photographer, because they do not only look in the mirror and get excited about their supposed beauty, but look at photography books, have an idea about the great photographers of the past and the present, visit galleries and museums, are generally interested in culture. And work seriously to always better their capability of expression. Or, as Yana said somewhere recently: I do charge for my work, but I don't do it for the money. Well said by an ideal model.

The best that can happen to a photographer is to find a natural, sensual, open-minded and intelligent woman, who until then didn't even think about being a model. When then "the spark jumps over" and the model starts to develop her interest in photography and art, there's a promising basis for a procreative collaboration.

If you know one of these uncommon women, please point her to my website!

If you are such a woman, contact me! Most of the time I am good-humored :-)

Kiss me, muse!

I don't have any idea about the kissing habits of where you live. Here in Spain (sorry, Catalonia...) people are kissing all the time. I meet totally unknown people and they put their hand on my shoulder and kiss me. Strange situations. I never know if two or three times are expected. You know, I hate strong perfumes, the chemical smelliness of hair spray and styling foams, the thick layers of makeup with its powdery dust that penetrates my nostrils and causes me to sneeze and sticks to my cheeks. I'd prefer some more distance. Often.

But I wanted to talk about the kiss of the muse, which is a rather figurative expression for what happens, when an artist meets a person that inspires his creativity in a magical way.

Kissed by the muse. Photo: Yana

The muse that accom­panied me during a much too short time, however, started her magic on me with the longest and sweetest kiss ever. She kissed me softly one enchanting afternoon on the beach and I realized that it was midnight when our lips separated.

At that time I had no idea about that this magically beautiful and tender being will con­vert in such a most important and influen­tial part of my life. I was laying at the beach and all I knew was, that my dream girl was kissing me, while I was literally kissed by my muse.

You know, it is very nice when a human enters in your life to whom you feel a strong connection from the beginning. It happens very rarely.

As a hetero it is even nicer when this person is of the opposite sex and you feel that you're not the only one of the two who wishes to abandon themselves to the sparkling erotic tension. Beautiful things happen in life! Sometimes.

But when this creature, that seemed to appear from nowhere, got virtually infected by my enthusiasm for art and photography and, although she had never modeled before, agreed to reveal her beauty in front of my camera, things already began to get a bit surreal.

An angel fallen from heaven? Daniel Bauer and his muse, Yana.

That's when I began to think that an angel has fallen into my life.

Her presence inspired me. She became the focus and subject of my creative work. While I influenced her development as a professional photo model, she radically influenced my visions.

Towards the end, on the peak of our relation, there was no more photographer and model. There was a team. While we sometimes discussed heavily about photographic (and all other) topics, during the work of a session our ideas complemented another in a fluid and magic manner. She was my muse.

When this happens, as a photographer, as an artist and as a man, you feel like living in heaven. But she was no angel.

And just as she appeared only some couple of years ago, she disappeared again. While my muse flew away, her influence stayed with me and the inspiration she caused still afterglows.

Sensual games, playful creativity. Yana and Daniel Bauer.

It was the second time in my photographic life that I knew a woman that was much more than a model for me.

And as they say, of all good things there are three. So there is still hope. Until another wonder happens I try not to loose the positive energy with which these few years of love and procreative cooperation have filled my soul, my heart and my brain.

Sometimes I sit on the cold and empty beach at night, see the never ending line of approaching airplanes in the dark sky and dream of a fairy that levitates thru the clouds. And I tell her: kiss me, muse!

(The private photos of this post were taken by Yana according to her ideas, while we still were a couple in love. It's the first time, the photo­grapher appears naked...)

Visual language

I am Swiss. I speak German, a little bit french, just enough to seduce a woman, and the kind of minimal English, limited, as you are just about to read it.

streets of Barcelona,
seen by Daniel Bauer

When I first arrived to Barcelona I couldn't even say if somebody was talking Italian or Spanish. I had taken an intensive Spanish course but in the end I didn't know much more than the common necessary words like "hello", "thanks" and "please get naked".

Spanish is a very beautiful language, especially if you don't understand what people are talking, but just hear the Latin melody. Although from the same linguistic roots like french, many words are very different. More than once I asked a model to please turn her tits to the other side. Not because I wanted her to perform an anatomic feat but simply because I used the french word "tête" for head, which in Spanish sounds like "teta" - tit.

The language really offers a lot to laugh. Imagine that the only difference between chicken-meat and a dick is that the chicken ends with an "o" (pollo) while the dick ends with an "a" (polla). I never ordered a "dick sandwich" (bocadillo de polla), not because I am so very original that I never use old, fucked-up jokes, but rather because during more than 20 years I have been a strict vegetarian and so simply didn't have the chance to apply this gag of Spanish greenhorns. However, during a long time reading "pollo" on an restaurants menu made me think about my "polla" and gave me the opportunity to turn the conversation to the respective topic...

As mentioned before, I am Swiss. Always on time like my Omega watch. And loving precision. Although misunderstandings can be fun and sometimes, under optimal circumstances, even lead directly to where communication happens on a more unconscious, harmonious base where nobody cares about the difference between "ah"s and "oh"s, in most parts of my life I like communication to be precise, clear without ambiguity, direct, unmistakable. I don't like blabla and small talk.

woman enjoying herself on the carpet of Daniel Bauer's studio in Barcelona

The same applies to visual language. There is a flood of vacuous images, copies of copies of a once maybe original idea, old jokes (dick-sandwiches), photoshopped to death, like a text of beautiful words saying precisely: nothing.

An image says more than a thousand words, they say. But what if those thousand words are completely meaningless?

Just the same as in literature where there are great writers whose texts are so strong that they affect you just as if you actually would live the described situation, there are photographers whose work already on first sight, even more after lingering over it for a moment, transmit a message and let you be immersed in the other world the artist opens for you.

I've got something to say!
Yana by Daniel Bauer

But because images talk to the beholder just like words to the reader, the given information might be as precise as possible, but of course there will always be many, if not the majority, who don't understand or misunderstand the message. And just like the jovial guy whose empty hahaha-hihihi-jokes attracts much more in a party than the person who has to say something profound, original and therefore always controversial, the easy to understand image, already seen in countless versions, will have much more likes on facebook than a true piece of art. In a visual world, where choosing the right instagram app is considered as being creative, the crowd will only "like" it after that some "important" people have repeated many times that this is important artwork. They "like" it not because they really like or even understand it, but because they don't have their own criteria and so simply like what everybody likes.

Don't get me wrong: I love my work, but I don't want to put my skills not even into proximity of the mastery of the great photographers of the past and the present. But my goal is to create art images with a clear, direct and unambiguous expression. As an artist I am on a constant search for perfection, thus breaking rules and less and less considering what generally is seen as good, correct, appropriate.

May you like it or not: it's what I have to say.

Sensual, sexual, art!

I look at the calendar and surprisingly it shows me that we live in the year 2012, and not, as it sometimes seems to me, in 1512. Well, there are some differences. While in the medieval times sex was the topic for the church and it's priests only (fuck, you'll go to hell!), today everything is connected to sex. I guess even insecticide advertising tells you, that you'll become a sexual hero if you use it.

But this sex, that is omnipresent, at the same time is something dirty and condemned. Sex is good, when it's used to sell a product, but it may not show a nipple, not to talk about a pussy! Facebook and Google+ users will get a collective heart attack if they see a nipple, or (maybe after masturbating) fall into a denunciation orgy and click the denounce-button, so that the clean, all-American anti-"Social-Webs" stay "safe for children".

So, per definition, a woman is not save for children. If you are a woman, you must always be aware of carrying dirty, sinful parts with you. Your body is a danger itself. You've got nipples, you bitch! You even have this disgusting, dirty and ugly part that shameless people call a pussy!

Yana, photographed by Daniel Bauer

At least you should humbly hide those unrighteous body parts and shave you're pubic hair, so that you look innocent and clean, although it might be a  little ridiculous for an adult woman to try to appear like a baby. But remember: you're a woman, you are something defective and dirty by nature!

I don't think that every nude photograph must show everything. But I also do not see any reason to hide some parts, that (almost) to all of us bring so much pleasure and happiness into our life's. If I take photos of a naked woman I want to achieve a sensual, sometimes erotic expression - in a natural way. Nipples, buttocks, pussies... are natural parts, and they can be very beautiful, as you can see in the image above.

The more this society tries to fill us with complexes for our sinful, nasty thoughts (just the same as the church did in medieval, with the difference that nowadays you don't go to the biblical hell but loose your anti-social-web accounts, maybe even your job, and so you go to another kind of hell and are damned again), the less I am up to follow the rules and the more I will show in my images.