Okay, so a few people have expressed curiosity as to why I haven't been doing any nudes recently... so I'm going to simply re-post my blog entry from my website that explains everything...

"The word came down from the woman behind the curtain (the dean)… the photographing of nudes at WCC has been forbidden.

They say one bad egg spoils the bunch… never has that seemed more true.

The circumstances surrounding the restriction of fine art nudes in the WCC photographic studio revolve around the actions of a single individual. That individual chose to act completely without regard for the consideration of others. His actions have shown him to be little more than a self-centered, self-serving, and inconsiderate responsibility dodging festering wound on the program and everyone who has had the misfortune of having to deal with him. It would seem obvious at this point the level to which he has earned my contempt, so perhaps I should digress and explain in perhaps some detail.

As I have said in previous posts, there are specific standards that photographers hold themselves to; in the case of students at WCC there are additional standards in the way we conduct ourselves in the studio. One of the standards we hold as students is to always respect and give consideration to the fact that we are working in a shared environment. Each of the bays have curtains which can be drawn for both privacy and to maintain the quality of lighting on the subject being photographed. These curtains (if necessary to the needs of the shoot) are very easy to clamp to seal off the individual bay from the rest of the studio. Common sense would dictate that while shooting nudes you would take every precaution to ensure privacy for the sake of the models and to prevent access. The photographer I speak of has been observed on several occasions to have not taken this precaution. (Keep in mind that this is a place where families are also brought in to be photographed)

To further the matter, his work is what could be generously called sub-par fare which is often exploitive of the feminine form and excessive in its display of genitalia for the sake of sexual suggestiveness. Irrespective of this, the professors had generously at this point (from what I understand of the matter) not taken it upon themselves to do any more than give consideration to possible policies to state the standards that other students held as a matter of course. Upon hearing about the discussion of the matter it was not simply good enough for him to accept that a reasonable policy on nudes in the studio would be an unfortunate necessity, he decided to take the matter to the dean. His discussion with the dean, without consideration to any other students, was centered around his perceptions of persecution on the foundations of his ethnicity and his self-centered agenda to do what he wants wherever he wants, no matter who he tramples along the way. The dean, chose (perhaps wisely in the legal sense) to at this point restrict the photographing of nudes.

Despite the restriction of the photographing of nudes in the studio, he maintains his seeming inability to distinguish the appropriateness of locations in which to conduct his work, choosing to set up shop with a laptop just outside the inner doors to the studio in full view of anyone entering or exiting the studio and edit his images. Add to this his abandonment of his class partners (of which I am sad to say I was hoodwinked into being one of) in both of the studio classes he is enrolled in because he hasn’t gotten his way and you end up with an equation which gives rationality to my contempt.

So, all this said, his actions have hurt every student in the photography program. It is hard to give an exact number, but I would estimate that at least three quarters of the students at one time or another chose to add a nude to their portfolio. As for me personally, this has not only put my assignment intents for two classes this semester to a screeching halt while I try to totally rethink nearly every idea I had but puts me at the imposition of having to organize with other like-minded students to reason with the dean and undo the damage which a single student has done."