You may have seen the word “boudoir” floating around your Instagram and Pinterest feeds and wondered what, exactly, is boudoir…better yet, how do you even pronounce that word? Lucky for you, we’ve got you covered on all of the above–we just so happen to specialize in this beautiful field!
A BIT OF HISTORY
Boudoir comes from the french, as you may have guessed, and is translated as “a woman’s bedroom or a private sitting room;” pronounced boo-dwah…and if you are really good with french pronunciation, you’ll know how to get that “oir” sound juuuuust right. If not, watch this video from khphotographe to learn how to become quite savvy on that pronunciation! As a side note* the Marquis de Sade made the boudoir space popular in his writings as a place in which women go to and talk privately amongst themselves–gossip–earning quite the scandalous reputation.
Boudoir has historically been referred to in an architectural sense; however, given the meaning of the word, it makes sense, then, to think of the field of boudoir photography as representing imagery of women in their private spaces–i.e. lingerie clad ladies.
WELCOME IN THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Boudoir imagery is nothing ‘new,’ even if it has risen to trend level recently. Early images of Clara Bow, Mae West, Jean Harlow, and Betty Page paved the way for the “sexy” and glamorous style, and, in since then, we’ve seen women in next-to-nothing gracing pages and covers of fashion magazines–from Vogue to Harper’s Bazaar–and others like Maxxim (however, it’s never been referred to as ‘boudoir’.” Only recently has the idea of boudoir photography become popular for the general public to participate in, and, thus, the name for the genre was born.
WHY BOUDOIR PHOTOGRAPHY?
“Give the gift of YOU.” It’s our motto, and we believe strongly in it. Boudoir images have become increasingly popular as wedding day or Valentine’s day gifts. However, we’ve seen it grow as an everyday ‘special’ gift–no oxymoron there–or even as something for one’s self to feel great about, well… one’s self–a la Paris Hilton. All that being said, the main focus of boudoir photography is to capture YOU in the most flattering way.
NEED MORE CONVINCING?
Just ask photographer Marisa Leigh “why boudoir photography?”:
Ask me to wax eloquent about why every woman on the planet should experience a transformative, cathartic boudoir experience at least once in her life, and you will have enough content and passion to fuel a ten part documentary series. But here’s the short answer: boudoir is timeless. It is evergreen. It captures your beauty, your elegance, and your slow coming into your own impeccably styled frames that are worth cherishing for the rest of your life.
