Reticent models, body conscious men and diverse beauty

Following my post about Grace Vane Percy on UdA and on here I received a lovely email from Figures in Art :

Photographer: Terry Lee-Shield "I have been following both UdA and your blog for a while" he says "and I really admire you and enjoy your efforts. My wife strongly covets your hair! I’m sure I am not alone among American photographers who wish you were not on the “wrong” side of the pond! I wanted to respond privately  to your blog post about Grace Vane Percy. Her work really is beautiful and I found it particularly interesting as I, while a man, share a very similar philosophy regarding the beauty of regular women regardless of age or body type. The artist statement on my website, www.figuresinart.com , speaks to this.  I want my nudes to emphasise this premise. Ironically, however, you will only see slender young models on my website. Rather than any bias, it is because they have been the only models available. Undoubtedly, there are other photographers interested in working with more mature subjects but find them difficult to find. Presumably, models become more conservative and self-conscious as they age. I find it absolutely tragic, the large number of women of all ages who have low self-esteem and hate their bodies when others would see them as truly beautiful! It’s a goal of my photography to show them their own beauty while at the same time showing the beauty of regular women to the world at large. Following a photojournalism career, I am now shifting towards art nudes and trying to build-up a body of work and launch a project showing the beauty of regular women of all ages and body types Do you have any suggestions on how to find those regular women and non-traditional models? Thank you again for your efforts on behalf of our art!" Thank you, Figures in Art. Your question is  interesting. Yes, there are fewer mature models and yes, the ones that model tend to be pro or semi-pro. Grace's models are clients, women that commission the photos for themselves and thus can be reassured that discretion is maintained in matters of where their images end up. Thus they fall into a different category. I dont know what it is like in the States but over here amateur models can often be found through Gumtree. But Model Mayhem too has amateur models listed. Maybe you could put up a notice somewhere specifying you'd prefer newbies and models over 40? Craig list perhaps? You talk about women's anxieties about their bodies. I was intrigued to read that men too suffer from similar anxieties. An article appeared in The Guardian three days ago which discussed recent research findings about men's perceptions of their own bodies as they age and it seems that they are even more anxious than women.  Men worry about beer bellies, receding hair and "man boobs" and there has been a steady increase in cosmetic surgery for men.   Men too suffer from eating disorders, it's not only women that do. Daniel Johns, lead singer of the band Silverchair, had a long battle with the disease. There is such great pressure to conform to an unrealistic ideal of beauty, it is not surprising that both men and women should have problems in accepting their bodies as beautiful. Wanting to be healthy is good. Wanting to be "beautiful" is not per se a bad thing. It's just that we need to accept that beauty is in diversity and should not try to conform to an unrealistic ideal of beauty. One of the most beautiful images I have seen of women is by photographer Richard Rasner (UniqueNudes on deviantArt). It is an image with seventeen girls/women that celebrates their diverse beauty. "Seventeen girls" by Richard Rasner  Absolutely stunnning. (All photos unless otherwise stated modelled by Alex B)