Surprise your lover with boudoir photography.

When asked what ‘boudoir photography’ is, it isn’t complicated to work out. We all understand what a ‘boudoir’ is – a lady’s dressing room or bedroom, and photography goes without saying. Essentially it is a style of photography which shares many similarities with glamour photography, but are more likely to focus in on the tradition of featuring women wearing provocative underwear.

The term boudoir has its derivation in the French language. It comes from the verb ‘bouder’, meaning ‘to sulk’ or ‘pout’. This style of image is linked to the sexually enticing pictures of women working in French night-clubs, such as the ‘Moulin Rouge’ where the content of the night’s entertainment was risqué at best. Historically speaking, a lady would use her boudoir as a place to embroider and entertain intimate friends, and thus the association with lingerie.

So, the style we now term ‘boudoir photography’ endeavours to capture this sulky, sullen, pouting image of a woman showing black lace knickers and bras. The style also makes great use of shade and darkness to contrast and hide various details. The reason for this is the psychological trick on the mind that what you do not see can have a greater bearing on the mind than what you do see.

Thus the genre is not as risqué as straight forward nude imagery as a boudoir shot will most commonly be partly clothed. This is indeed where the style parts company from glamour photography. Glamour work is most frequently a nude picture.

The style has cropped up in many fashion magazines and clothes shows and has now filtered down into being a genre opted for in some wedding photography too. The bride is depicted in her ‘boudoir’ preparing for her wedding, possibly in part of her dress, but hitching it up to show black lace lingerie and suspenders. It is considered to be a nice and naughty gift to the future husband by some brides.

It continues to have a symbiotic relationship to the catwalk where the photographs that end up in magazines are often the result of influences from fashion shows. The developing style in print is also believed to feed back into the designers’ workshops where they seek to capture much of the sensual and pouting models. It has had a broader influence on the media by inspiring stylistic treatments in films such as ‘Moulin Rouge’ while drawing on some elements of Broadway musicals stretching right back to the nineteen thirties.

A good boudoir shot will rely on the combination of the expertise of the photographer, the styling of the clothing, all finished off with the application of moody make-up and hair styling. The stylist works on skin tones and hair texture to enhance the moody ambience of the image. The best results come where the model is not only looking sullen, but sensual too. Hair styling enhances the element of boudoir photography where the unseen is just as important as the seen. A cascade of hair down the shoulder can easily be used to mask nude breasts. The hair can also be styled to fall down in front of the face to hide much of the expression. Sometimes, all you can make out is some of the rouged cheek and the pouting lips.

So, is this just a passing fashion that is likely to be lost to the mists of time and the back catalogues of some coffee table journals? It is difficult to say whether the take up for the style will continue – all we can say is that it is very popular at the moment and is unlikely to be one that is consigned to the history of art. If anything at all, it is most likely to be critiqued as a classic genre.