A boudoir (French: [bu.dwaʁ], English: /ˈbuːd.wɑːr/) is a lady’s private bedroom, sitting room or dressing room. The term derives from the French verb bouder, meaning “to be sulky” or boudeur, meaning “sulky”.
The term “boudoir” may also be ascribed to a genre of photography. Boudoir photography is not generally a new concept and numerous examples including ones of Kathleen Meyers, Clara Bow, Mae West and Jean Harlow photographed in a boudoir style.
Typically shot in a photographer’s studio or luxury hotel suites, it has become fashionable to create a set of sensual or sexually suggestive images of women (and occasionally men and couples) in “boudoir style”. The most common manifestation of contemporary boudoir photography is to take variations of candid and posed photographs of the subject partly clothed or in lingerie. Nudity is more often implied than explicit. Commercially the genre is often (though not exclusively) derived from a market for brides to surprise their future husbands by gifting the images on or before their wedding day. Other motivations or inspiration for boudoir photography shoots include anniversaries, birthdays, Valentine’s Day, weight loss regimes, maternity, other form of body change or alteration (such as breast augmentation or reduction) and for servicemen and women overseas.
This is a collage of some of my favourite shots from a recent boudoir session with some local photo hobbyists. Our model “Lang Sapphire Sky”, as she preferred to be called was quite the natural when it comes to posing, albeit being relatively new to the local modelling scene.
