Interview with Our Photographer
Miss E. favourite boudoir shots are fun, irreverent, ironic, stylish, slightly blurred, sexy and wet.
Exclusive Interview: Juliette’s Diary’s Photographer Reveals Everything You’ve Ever Wanted To Know About What Happens Behind The Scenes Of Luxury Boudoir Photography
We all know that a Juliette’s Diary erotic photo shoot is a luxurious, uplifting experience - and we know that the high-end photo book that comes from one is a thing of pure, unbridled beauty.
But have you wondered what happens on the other side of the camera? How does our photographer set the perfect conditions and use her artistic experience to craft the perfect, confidence-building, sexy photography that you’ll treasure forever? And what exactly makes Juliette’s Diary photography so totally different to other photoshoots?
We spoke to our expert Juliette’s Diary photographer, to get an exclusive glimpse behind the camera to reveal her photography philosophy, her unique artistic insight which goes into crafting every Juliette’s Diary photoshoot experience, and how she creates photography that makes women across the world feel more empowered and sexier than ever before…
How does your artistic background inform your photography?
I am originally from Florence, I moved to London because I wanted to understand photography’s potential, limits, and place in our culture - I achieved a BA honours (London College of Printing) and then a MA in Art Photography (University of the Arts London). I believe that photography creates a space where fact and fiction, and desires and reality, meet. We can fill this space however we want: creating an alternative reality, exploring our past, our personalities, or our wishes. We can use it to empower it ourselves, express ourselves, and to portrait something that goes beyond our appearances. We can also use it to remember - something good, something great, something bad. We can use it to celebrate, like a rite of passage, or a cathartic process to heal from the past.
How did you start taking boudoir pictures, and what makes them different to other photoshoots?
Actually, I saw some boudoir pictures on a wedding photographers’ website, and I hated them! They were very ‘sanitised’ pictures of women in lingerie, laying on beds, waiting for… what? A man to save them from themselves? The styling was horrible, the make-up looked shiny… and not to mention, the bedrooms were a suburban home interior nightmare to me! That wasn’t aspirational, it didn’t say anything about these women’s personalities, their sexual fantasies or their desires. They weren’t sexy in the slightest.
I had previously taken portraits for burlesque artists and women, such as writers, artists, and performers, in ‘sexy’ contexts or for articles in London for leading lifestyle magazine DIVA magazine, so my idea of female sexuality, desire and empowerment was quite different. I was also familiar with many photographers’ nude, sexual and erotic works - I especially loved Ellen Von Hunwerth’s photography book, “Revenge”.
I wanted to offer anyone the chance to enter this beautiful world, made of beauty, desire, irreverence, and irony… to make these beautiful photographs accessible to every woman. I like to play with society ideals of beauty and with stereotypes - like taking fishnet stockings, high heels, and corsets, but re-appropriating them.
What happens on a Juliette’s Diary photoshoot?
Every shoot is a fun, safe, magical set to enter. The locations selected for the shoots are all like beautiful film sets in which to stage a performance for the woman to express any side of herself she wishes to. We make the woman feel beautiful and at her best with gorgeous hair and make-up artists, and with high-end styling and props.
The woman brings her own lingerie (the stylist can help her choose it) and will be provided with a variety of props and accessories - think shoes, costume jewellery, gowns, feathers, whips, masks, and more - that she can use to illustrate her fashion and sensual fantasies.
To start, we always take beautiful portraits of the woman in an evening gown and some close-up portraits. Then we select some storylines, or looks, or areas of the locations - depending on what she wants and what we have agreed in the meeting with her the previous day - and start exploring them. We love details - of objects and of her body.
We love everything that is personal to that woman, from her body shape and size, to scars and style. We love to show her smiling and confident, reaching for what makes her happy, and to express her own individuality, through objects she may bring, movements and poses.
As a storyline, I am happy to explore sexual fantasies and role plays in a way that makes them fun, irreverent, ironic, and to create a feeling of complicity when the woman shares the book with her partner, as a starting point to explore together - rather than creating pictures that are completely revealing and only aimed to arouse.
Tell us about your technique...
The technique I use is very simple: one small camera, giving gentle directions, suggestions, to make sure the woman feels comfortable and at ease during the shoot. We talk, we laugh, we discuss poses and shots together, we make fun if there are embarrassing moments, and we look at the pictures together on the camera as we go along.
I like to shoot mainly in black and white. Why? Because black and white is a further abstraction from reality, and so makes it easier to recognise that we are looking at a fantasy, a desire, a game. Also because black and white doesn’t have a place in time, it is timeless but also elegant, and stylish - it means that clothes and colours of the pictures will never go out of fashion.
That said, we also use colour photographs in many situations - we love red lips, the colour of flowers, and skin tones against lingerie.
Another thing I love is slightly blurred images: they inject life into a picture, capturing a moment and at the same time they fail to freeze it. They capture that sparkle in the eyes; the movement of the head when a woman laughs. They’re also imperfect. That imperfection is sexy. We don’t live in a series of perfectly frozen moments, but in a continuous stream of moments - blurred images are more realistic, and they can make us feel like we were there in the moment with them.
Do you retouch your pictures?
Although we offer a full retouching service with all of our shoots, we normally end up doing none or very little. There are two reasons why. Firstly, every woman is unique and we aim to portrait her own beauty, making her feel great for exactly how she is - rather than what society says she should look like - we love her moles, her proportions, and her curves!
Second, we think that imperfections are a lot more sexy than perfection! It’s often the little ‘imperfect’ detail that we notice in those that we love - it’s what makes us more interested in them, and often even what turns us on. It could be a little scar, or a mole, or even dirty feet after walking barefoot, smudged make up, a crumpled dress, or tousled hair.
So, after a photoshoot we send our selection of images edited, but not retouched, and the woman can choose her favourites to approve and be put in the photobook The majority of times, she agrees that they need no retouching!
Do women ever expect to be retouched?
One time, I had a beautiful woman in to shoot. She told me she had always felt insecure and self conscious, and hated being photographed, so before her wedding she had booked a Juliette’s Diary shoot to break with this feeling. She commissioned a photoshoot in London and the pictures turned out great: she had a superb figure, strong facial features, and great style. The photographs were elegant, joyous and reflected her personality very well. But she hated them. She said the photographs were beautiful, but that she didn’t look beautiful in them. She couldn’t point out what was wrong with her appearance, just that she didn’t look beautiful in them and asked to ‘retouch’ them to make her look better. I honestly didn’t know where to start, because she looked great… until I had an inspiration. Rather than retouching them, I mirrored the images and sent them to her… she loved them! She had spent so much time scrutinising herself in the mirror - looking for imperfections, and things to criticise, that she wasn’t able to recognise herself if not in the mirror.
I don’t know what is the moral here really - possibly nothing to do with retouching and everything to do with women’s own perception of society’s unattainable beauty standard, mental health, and happiness. I do know that she left feeling happy and beautiful, though.
What’s been your favourite uniquely styled photoshoot?
There was a woman from Venice, marrying a man of Asian origin, before moving to a third country. Her Juliette’s Diary shoot was divided in two parts to combine both cultures: one was inspired by Venice carnival and the other one by Japanese Geishas. It was for a surprise book to her future husband. She played with fashion, masks, make up, used different flowers and props and we created a very different vibe for both sides, giving a nod to both cultures to mark the start of a new beginning together. I loved how this choice was unique to her and rooted in their cultural origins, and how she wanted to celebrate it. I think these cultural differences may have been also at the root of what initially attracted them to each other - and the photobook was the perfect gift for them to remind them of that forever.