Poses help introduce new elements to a composition when you’re shooting. It’s important to understand the body and how it can be positioned on a backdrop — not just where the arms and legs go, but what that positioning is actually saying.
For me, a body is a way to show character. An emotion. A side of someone that sometimes they didn’t even know they had. That’s why I always say actors make better models than models do — you can get them in character, and once someone’s in character, the pose stops being a pose and starts being a person.
The most important part of shooting for the right post, especially when you’re shooting on film with limited exposures, is this: shoot what you want on digital first, then replicate that “master shot” on film. It’s how you get a higher success rate when you don’t have the luxury of firing off a hundred frames to find the one.
“You don’t need a new pose every five minutes. You need to walk around the one you’ve got.”
Shot on a Leica M6, 35mm lens. No knees were permanently harmed in the making of this post.