Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.”—George Bernard Shaw
And to answer the question that I proposed above, I don’t know how. For reasons I’ve never fully understood, over the years, I’ve had some problems with some of my images being censored by magazine and book publishers. Even when I wrote a book that was full of photographs of nude women, the editor refused to run a few of the images. That’s a story for another time. I’ll update this post with a link when it runs.
Even some of my photographs that would easily pass the notoriously prudish censors on social media were called out by book and magazine censors as being “too…” whatever. As I head into my twilight years. I’ve decided to share some of these stories and images that caused such a kerfuffle with editors, publishers and art directors. Let start today with a story I alluded to in a previous post…
My initial assignment was to make portraits that would be used in an article for a high-profile photography magazine. An old friend, wanted to write a story about these new-fangled LED light panels and asked me to shoot a few portraits for it. For this shoot, I rounded up two talented models and a creative makeup artist and we had a pleasant time making the portraits.
When he submitted the finished article to the fancy magazine, the editor took one look at my photographs and refused to run the article. She claimed they were “too sexy.” You can see the first of the images the editor didn’t like in that previously linked post.
My friend then took the article to one of the many free photography magazines that existed at the time. (Except for those connected to photographic associations, they’re all gone now.) The first one refused to run the articles because the editor though the images were “too risqué.” Then my friend presented the article to another free magazine and they agreed to run it but would only use that linked portrait of Ashley Rae. This editor refused to use the portrait of Kellie featured today because it was “too suggestive.” I would submit that this photograph is less revealing than many of the images featured on photography blogs, including this one, as well as on the notoriously censored Facebook and Instagram. (See text box at bottom of post.)
Sharp-eye readers may notice that Kellie was featured in one of my Stupid Photographer’s Tricks posts. She was a sweet and wonderfully nice model and I was blessed to have had the opportunity to photograph her three times. You may also have noticed that in recent weeks some of the glamour images I’ve published are a little more revealing than previously featured on this blog. This is being done consciously and if you’re offended, I apologize. But at the same time I’m not going to stop. The constant drumbeat of censorship I’ve been dealing with over the years has beaten me down to the point, that as I’m getting older I just want to photograph who and what I want and if you’re on board with that I welcome you to my journey as I head off into the sunset.
As the narration in the movie and TV show goes, “There are many more such stories in The Naked City” and I intend to share more of them over the rest of the year.