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Why are David Hamilton's photographs so popular?

deckofficer

deckofficer

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His technique of a thin layer of Vaseline on the lens for a soft focus effect and his subject matter of nude girls age 12~16 would make you think his work's popularity to be quite limited. My research shows otherwise, his books have sold worldwide (except South Africa, where they are banned) and probably have enjoyed more reprints than many classics. Could it mean there are a lot of closet pedophiles? I'm a former professional photographer back in the day of film and larger formats like 4X5 negatives, and just don't care for grainy, low light, soft focus pictures. Anyone here familiar with Hamilton's work and care to comment as to why it is so popular?

This one I happen to like, except for that soft focus technique.

 
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I looked up his work and I have to say that I like many of his images. What I didn't like was due to lighting or angle or other technical things. Note this is spoken as a non hobby amateur, so don't expect me to know proper words and such.

His work, at least at the one site I went to, shows no sexual context and is very much, IMHO, an artistic effort. I am one who sees no inherent problems with the nude body, adult or child, and as such have no issues with these images. Yes nudity can be used in a pornographic context, and I quite frankly, enjoy both porn and artistic nudes. I do not enjoy kids in my porn, however. The context is extremely important to me, and shapes my enjoyment and appreciation of a given piece.
 
maquiscat said:
I looked up his work and I have to say that I like many of his images. What I didn't like was due to lighting or angle or other technical things. Note this is spoken as a non hobby amateur, so don't expect me to know proper words and such.

His work, at least at the one site I went to, shows no sexual context and is very much, IMHO, an artistic effort. I am one who sees no inherent problems with the nude body, adult or child, and as such have no issues with these images. Yes nudity can be used in a pornographic context, and I quite frankly, enjoy both porn and artistic nudes. I do not enjoy kids in my porn, however. The context is extremely important to me, and shapes my enjoyment and appreciation of a given piece.
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I agree, his work isn't porn but rather artistic nudes of young girls. Since we agree the technical qualities of his work isn't a strong suit, then it must be the subject matter that has made his work so popular. Which gets me back to the reason of starting this thread, that the subject matter is in demand.
 
deckofficer said:
I agree, his work isn't porn but rather artistic nudes of young girls. Since we agree the technical qualities of his work isn't a strong suit, then it must be the subject matter that has made his work so popular. Which gets me back to the reason of starting this thread, that the subject matter is in demand.
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Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of images that I didn't have technical issues with. It was only some of them. And those were based upon my personal preferences. As to those who would use his work to wank off to, well there are people out there who would wank off to David and Venus de Milo as well. So one can't really look at subject matter as to what some people would do. It really needs to be at the intent of the artist them self. So then what is he attracting point of his work over others who do nudes, or even just young person nudes? Are there others and how popular are they?
 
None that I know of have the sales figures of Hamilton. Sally Mann used black & white, did her own darkroom work and her own children. For B&W her tech skills are very good. There are others, just can't remember their names.
 
deckofficer said:
None that I know of have the sales figures of Hamilton. Sally Mann used black & white, did her own darkroom work and her own children. For B&W her tech skills are very good. There are others, just can't remember their names.
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I like what she did with the kids. Well done, no shame in the body and no sexual context. Very much like Hamilton in that aspect.
 
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