27 August

Article from Model Society: Mature Nude Models

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.