I am in in Carrie Leigh's NUDE

I am in Carrie Leigh's NUDE, in the Summer/Fall 2010 issue, out in about two weeks. I am more than thrilled, I could cartwheel around the world in less than 80 days.

Try and understand. I am a mature model. In the commercial world a model my age can expect to be sent to castings for youngish grandmas, but grandmas nevertheless, neatly dressed in a tweed skirt, a cashmere twinset and maybe a thread of pearls round my neck.  I went to quite a few of such castings since I joined a model agency in 2005 and was  told to keep my hair in a neat bob, modern grandmas do not have long tresses. I complied, then after a couple of years I refused to conform. My hair, which fortunately grows fast,  is now waist length and naturally white.

Photographer: Nic Donovan

But ...hold on. I do nude modelling and have done so for the past two and half years. What, nude AT YOUR AGE?

Actually, no one has ever said that to me, not this rudely, apart from my 24 year old son, who thinks I am the oldest woman on the planet. He was bemused that I should pose nude in front of the camera and thought I was rather eccentric, to put it mildly.

 Being a nude model, having passed the 50 threshold is not  'normal'.  I still remember the unflattering comments left by photographers on my Purestorm thread - for those who dont know, Purestorm is a model/photographer site, like Model Mayhem - when I asked for a portfolio review. Someone suggested I should drastically change my hairstyle and get some colouring done.

Thus being featured in Carrie Leigh's NUDE  is a tremendous achievement for me.  I could give up modelling tomorrow and I would have something to show for it. Carrie Leigh's NUDE is THE fine art quarterly for nude photography. It stands for quality and it commands respect. I am featured there because London based Italian photographer Marcello Pozzetti submitted one of the pictures he took of me for the annual international art nude competition. That was last December. Marcello's photo was among the finalists, it received a Honourable Mention  and  was selected  for publication in NUDE.  But I am the model!  An over-age model, at that.  NUDE's editor realised how unusual this was  and I was given a write up of my own in the 'Nudes around the World' section.

And as if being in NUDE was not enough, I was, more or less simultaneously, featured in JADE, the magazine of the Guild of Erotic Artists, in their November 2010 issue, with a ten page spread with photos of me by Marcello Pozzetti, Vernon Trent, Darran Porter, Paddy Johnston, Ray Spence, Korrigan (Erwan), David Nuttall, George Swift, Hervé Baudat, Stuart Bentley, Pascal Renoux, Victor Schwanberg and Frank Reinhold.

So how does it feel to be feted as a mature model? In truth, my age is not something I think about all the time. I often forget about it, I am sure most people do not think about their age until their birthday comes and I am no different from anyone else. I just love modelling and I do it whenever I get an opportunity. I am resilient.

Actually,  I find that many people, of all ages, react very positively to my modelling work. On deviantArt I received more than 150,000 page views in just over two years and the flattering comments come in by the dozens every day. Age is after all a number and we all have a different way of aging. My mother is 89 years old now and a complete wreck, physically and mentally. My therapist on the other hand is 88, a vegan, still in great demand for conferences and workshops and continues to run classes in authentic movement, a technique used in dance therapy. I believe that if you live your life in an unhealthy way sooner or later your body and  mind will show it. I take good care of myself and I would even if I did not model.

 I would like to thank the whole team at NUDE, especially its indefatigable editor in chief, Carrie Leigh and its Managing Editor, Carla Johnson,  for the attention they have given me. I would also like to thank Unbearable Lightness and her inspirational blog, What We Saw Today, for her friendship and for being her, one of the best 'over-age' models around.

I really can't wait to get my copy of NUDE. Christmas has come early for me this year...

 (All photos modelled by Alex B. except for  Carrie Leigh's NUDE cover. The photo by Pozzetti is not the one in NUDE)