Model Society: An essay about mature nude models
Maria: The Advantages of Maturity
By David Bollt on August 20, 2014
Maria started modeling at age 43 with a remarkable passion
and dedication, that helped her transcend expectations of what a model is
supposed to be.
She embraces herself and others as being beautiful, each in
their own unique light. Maria truly sees the things that others may view as
imperfections, as her individual signatures.
What was your inspiration for becoming a model?
I started my career when I became 43 years old. My children
went to the next schools, and I wanted to get to work again and have a passion
in life. Modeling is some sort of dream for lots of girls/women. I just stepped
into the modeling world, signed in at agencies, created a website, signed up on
forums, worked on my portfolio (on TFP base) for a long time. I learned by
failure and success.
My age has been an advantage as there are not much older ,
new-come, models around who are fresh faces in the market and willing enough to
travel, work hard at rates which are not based on five figures. I never
represented myself as young and frustrated, but as a lady who is proud of her
age, her body, her looks and is still willing to learn and to grow (old)
hahahaha….
What was it like for you the first time you did nude modeling?
How do you relate to nude modeling in general?
The first time I did a nude shoot was actually my first
shoot… hahahaha! I had been to sport classes for five years and I wanted to
have some beautiful pictures for myself as some sort of reward. I never had
problems with nude shoots, as long as the photographer is taking care for good
light and tasteful pictures.
Maybe it also was because I survived a car-crash and I am a
heart-patient; and I am absolutely not perfect; but I am grateful to be alive
and consider my body as something very precious. Beautiful pictures are
salvation for the soul.
It is sad that a lot of people still do not understand about
nude modeling or fine nude art. It IS art in its purest form and has nothing to
do with porn or the adult industry.
What’s your favorite part of creating this type of art? Can
you tell us about a time when you felt this the most?
It is always very nice to get the results from a
photographer or artist on paper or digital. Most of the time, the photographers
and artists are really making something outstanding and beautiful. My general
line is always: “Oh wow, is that me????”
One of my first and best nude shoots was just in a small
studio with nothing other than a white wall, a photographer as well as me and
my completely naked body. I did some yoga-poses and he took care of the light.
Sometimes something very simple can be very interesting and beautiful.
The picture is on the front-rotation of Modelsociety and I
am still very proud of it.
What is the most challenging aspect of art modeling?
The challenging aspect is resting the impulse to fight
against the general opinion that models should be skinny, young and
overwhelmingly beautiful, but instead to simply enjoy working with
photographers and artists who are interesting to shoot me, as a mature lady, as
a unique model.
The most important thing for me is that my pictures should
be tasteful, with grace and elegance. Some photographers and artists are very
good in creating/capturing these stories in a respectful way which is a far
bigger challenge than to shoot a perfect body in a perfect pose like thousands
pictures of exactly the same kind.
When it does not work anymore, I will focus myself on other
kinds of model-categories like commercial, advertising and be a laughing
grandma baking cookies for the children…
Nude Art Model Maria
Any advice for someone who wants to be a model?
Yes in four words: no guts, no glory.
You have to get experience as a model. Even negative
experiences are sometimes worthwhile. Being a model is not only looking good
for a camera, but it takes a lot of work and guts to go on forums, to
communicate with photographers, to go to agencies, casting, to travel alone and
to get a good feeling for styling and make-up, as on most model-jobs you are on
your own…. It is also important to think about finance, travel costs, taxes and
to protect yourself for bad people, scam etc.
Read a lot on model forums like modelsociety or model mayhem
and ask for help or advice. It is a lonely job but it is also enormously
rewarding and exciting.
What is beauty?
Beauty (when talking about people) is something that varies
culturally. In some cultures a certain kind of ‘look’ is considered to be
beautiful, while others outside of that culture may be shocked to witness it.
And what we (in western society) call beautiful, might seem completely stupid
or crazy elsewhere. I personally hold a sort of global view, that people are
beautiful when they are natural and simply take good care of themselves. I am
drawn to some unique-ness in a person rather than looks which are created by
fashion, the media or cosmetic surgery. In the art-world this is exactly what
makes “art” or an art-model special; being unique and more or less as natural
as possible.
Maria Mature Nude Modeling
Maria is a wonderful example of someone with a willingness
to accept oneself as part of the process of expressing oneself. She has shown a
profound ability to navigate the sometimes complex world of modeling to build a
distinct and stunning modeling portfolio. Her ability to embrace her good
experiences and to artfully leverage the bad ones as learning experiences has
graced her with some valuable perspectives for serious models to consider.
