Glamour Photography and/or similar exotic female photography versus various types of art photos, nude photos, and other representations of the female form, would not appear to have especially subtle differences. However, many individuals are attached to our puritanical background in a way that totally disallows any look at the female form as artistic expression. Moreover, semantic differences these days cloud the distinctions even more than ever before, particularly concerning the words exotic, erotic and glamour which seems to currently be misunderstood much more often than not.



Glamour Photography is the art of capturing the glamorous appeal of a model or subject during a photo shoot for the specific purpose of recognizing glamour. Glamour photography would also include the photographs which come from such a photo shoot. The term Glamour photography by itself is relatively straightforward. Confusion and misinterpretation follow words like exotic and erotic when they are used to describe Glamour photography.

Exotic Photography should be simple enough. It should be photography containing exotic people or animals or even cars and/or photos taken in exotic locals. However, due primarily to adult internet venues continually misusing the term exotic, it now carries a strong suggestion of sexual activity or nudity inherent within the word whenever it is applied to photos of women.

Merriam-Webster defines eroticism: the arousal of or the attempt to arouse sexual feeling by means of suggestion, symbolism, or allusion (as in an art form). So when the scantily clad model looks directly into the camera with her strongest come hither look, your libido stirs quite perceptively and you feel a very strong urge to go thither, or follow her anywhere, as it were. The body language, the sexy outfit, the come hither look combine to create the suggestion necessary that says she wants you. The look can be very suggestive even without nudity or the presence of a male in the photo. Again, however the word erotic has been so overused in internet adult sites, as to no longer be recognized as anything short of sexual content. When a word is so often misused that it is understood to have a new meaning it takes on that meaning as well. Erotic does not have the other uses that exotic has. It is defined as suggesting the sexual but now more commonly used as a synonym for the term sexual. A, a Kerry

Alternately we have all heard it said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, however, sometimes beauty is so much in the eye of the beholder that it even shocks the beholdee. We've all seen various vigorous disagreements concerning the beauty of this or that person all the way to the point that sometimes we just can't believe the two people are looking at the same third person. And while there can be some fairly basic agreements on what is beautiful and what is not, even these can go out the window in certain instances. I'm not talking here about the case of the girl who didn't look appealing at all at nine o'clock but after a six pack of beer at midnight, she looked pretty good. I'm saying that it's more than possible two people are looking at the exact same other person in the same light and with the same background and while they do not necessarily see two different things they most certainly do not appreciate the things that they do see similarly at all. So in this way, what may seem erotic to one person may seem promiscuous or even just strange to another.

Similarly a photographer, who has a little magician in him, can create beauty in the eye of the beholder by capturing the essence of that, come hither look and conveying it with the correct mixture of sexiness, body language and expression to get the point across without overdoing it. The smile on Mona Lisa's face, notwithstanding, there is no question that the right photographer and model can also convey a particular image with such depth of feeling as to completely dispel any other interpretation of the photos than the one the photographer has intended. Even though it may happen rarely, and some may dispute whether it derives more from the photographer or the model, it is much easier to recognize than to produce. So it is very possible, to create a photograph without nudity, or any kind of sexual content, which is still quite erotic, but just don't call it that unless someone is looking at the photo, otherwise it will likely be misinterpreted.