The expression “less is more” has never been more true. Women are taking it off, to turn it back on! Boudoir photography is hot, in more ways than one! And it’s not just those young, 20-somethings, it’s women in mid-life and beyond who are giving their all, well, just about, to prove that age is irrelevant! Just ask 61-year-old Lynn Fleeger.
“People look at a woman over 60 and think she’s halfway dead, she’s got one foot in the grave and the best part of her life is over and that’s just not true anymore. It just isn’t.”
Still, it’s something she never thought she’d do.
“I toyed with the idea for a while but I thought no, I’m not going to subject myself to that, but I came away feeling like, hey, you know what? I’m still desirable, I’m still sexy and it made me feel good!”
There ARE those who would say some things ARE better left to the young. But the proof is in the pictures!
“This makes you feel like you’re really a special person again,” says Fleeger. “Like you’re really something special. When she was showing me the shots she took I thought this can’t be me, but it was! Things that I felt so unnatural doing, she’d say act natural and I’d say, uh huh, I’ve got a cramp in this leg, but when I saw the pictures it was amazing. It was amazing!”
And oh, how times have changed, well, maybe a little. Fleeger says she understand very well that even a generation ago, 60 year old women never even think of doing this.
“Oh, never! Even now, I haven’t told anybody I did this. Nobody. Not my sister, nobody knows I did this. WHY? Because of the stigma attached. What I will do, when I get the pictures, then I will tell them I did it and they’ll see, I can’t make people understand that boudoir photography is not pornography. The perception is out there that it’s going to be sleazy, campy and it’s just not.”
Kalysa Wilson of Ashira Photography was doing fine shooting weddings, but when she found boudoir photography, her future flashed before her eyes!
“I try to bring out the woman. It’s not about the background, it’s not about the set, it’s about showing sensuality and beauty around her. Because an arm can be sexy and elbow, a leg can be sexy. You don’t have to be a men’s magazine, because most women think of boudoirs or sexy photos as men’s magazines. No it’s totally the opposite.
I love it. I like making people feel good about themselves. Most of them come to me and say, oh, I don’t look good, I don’t take pictures well, and I’m like, hey, don’t worry about it! When I’m finished with you? You’ll be a supermodel.
I try to build their self esteem because I’ve been there. After my second child I was humungous, bigger than I am now so I can see in my head I know how women are feeling self conscious. You don’t want to go in the dressing room you don’t want to look at yourself in the mirror and to help build their confidence up even if it’s just like for a 30 minute to an hour session really makes a difference in a women’s life.”
Gail Lotze summoned her courage, and put her fears aside to commemorate a milestone.
“This is a big day for me, that’s for sure. I’ve never done anything like this. My husband and I are getting ready to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary so I was trying to think of some special way to celebrate, and I kind of thought maybe I can sort of immortalize myself and have a photo album prepared and give it to him for our wedding anniversary.”
She’s also a mom, in her 50s, who believes sensuality has nothing to do with age, something her finished photos would certainly tend to support!
“Well you’ve got to feel good about yourself. You have to enjoy your life and you don’t want to give up. I’ve got a lot of life left in me and people my age and older than me too. So if you feel good about yourself you can enjoy life a little bit better.”
And boudior photography is affordable. Packages usually begin in the 200-dollar range, and can include full makeup, and hair styling. Lingerie is often available for purchase. And the photos can be displayed in a variety of different ways. And, for the people who say you’d never catch me doing that? Lotze exclaimed, “Oh, don’t say that, don’t sell yourself short. Go ahead. If I can do it, you can do it!”
Wilson believes it simply reaffirms what should be crystal clear. “It reminds me that every woman needs to know that they’re beautiful. Every woman needs to know they’re sexy.”
And before you think YOUR wife, your mom or your grandmother would never do this, you should realize that’s EXACTLY who it is that’s choosing to step in front of the camera! Fleeger believes the possibilities are wide open for, “Anyone and everyone. Anyone who loves themselves and even for people who don’t like themselves because it will make them like themselves again! It will make them realize that they’re loveable, they’re sexy and they’re a beautiful person. You feel like a million bucks, you really do.”
