I’m back with another installment in the ongoing series of interviews I’ve been doing for this site. This time I did a question and answer section with alternative photographer Igor Smith.
I first encountered Igor’s work online during one of my surfing sessions. I was sucked into the endless abyss of tits and ass available on the internet that does a great job of taking me away from almost any series task I try to undertake on my computer at the time.
Igor isn’t exactly involved in the “sex industry” but he does produce a nice assortment of nude photography. His stuff is different and to me that makes it cool. It’s not all nude photography. In fact that’s probably only a small percentage. But of course that’s the stuff that sticks out to me and probably most other guys. Igor is not just a photographer. He’s produced interesting websites like Driven By Boredom and written quite a bit too.
I haven’t been getting a lot of comments on the interviews I’ve been posting lately. But I can tell from looking at the site statistics that they are definitely being viewed. I can’t help but wonder if the lack of response is simply because the interviews don’t invite comment like reviews of adult entertainment facilities do. Or is it because my readers are simply uninterested? I find the latter hard to imagine since I’ve talked to some cool people about some interesting things, though I certainly could be wrong. Let me know.
How did you get into photography?
My mom was a photographer in the seventies so I had cameras around all my life. In high school I took a class and started shooting punk bands and I never put a camera down again.
Do you prefer writing or taking photos?
By far photography, but I like to write about my photos as well. They say a photo is worth a thousand words so why not give ’em two thousand.
When did you begin doing nude photography? How did you get into it?
I used to always shoot my girlfriends and stuff growing up and being the pervert I am it became a big part of my photography.
How, if at all, do you make money from your nude photography?
I shoot a lot of the naked stuff just as content for my website. I make ad revenue from my site but it’s only about a fifth of my income. I do sell nude stuff from time to time and I just started doing a monthly feature for Hustler which pays pretty well. And they give me a lot of freedom to do what I want instead of your standard pretty girl porn stuff.
Do you differentiate between nude photoshoots and “pornography”?
Personally I don’t even like shooting spread leg stuff but I feel like the line for me is drawn at penetration.
What’s the craziest experience you’ve had on a shoot?
I have a camera in my hand all the time, so all my craziest experiences turn into photo shoots. I will give you a weird sex one though because I know that’s what you are looking for. I would never do this now that I am a pro, but when I first started shooting I photographed a friend of mine who was really nervous about shooting. She asked me to get naked if she was going to be naked. I told her I didn’t want to get naked unless I was hard cause I think flaccid dicks look creepy. So the whole shoot, which ended up being like two hours, I was pretty much jerking off. She was masturbating as well and we both just got super horny and crazy but we never even touched each other. At the end I came on her tits and we took photos of that too but we never even kissed. It was pretty hot, but not exactly the most professional moment of my career.
What do you think about prostitution?
As long as the girl feels safe and is protected I am all for it. Personally I have never paid for sex, but sex has always come pretty easy for me and I haven’t been in a situation where I needed, or wanted to pay for it. I have a ton of friends who escort and most of them seem pretty happy with it, but they are all high class girls who get references and charge a ton. I worry about the girls on the lower end. One of these days I will probably pay for it just for the experience of it, but I haven’t yet.
Who is the hottest woman of all time in your opinion?
I was obsessed with Drew Barrymore as a kid and then I moved to Gina Gershon. These days I don’t really have a favorite but fortunately I get to look at really hot girls all the time.
What is your favorite book?
I will say Women by Bukowski because that is an appropriately creepy answer.
What books, films, websites or other media would you recommend to people who like the work you do?
Late Night Feelings has a bunch of my favorite contemporary adult photographers working together and it’s all free so I would start there. Most of my photographic influences aren’t really of the naked variety but the obvious stuff would be like Terry Richardson and Richard Kern and then photographers who mix party photos with nudity like Last Nights Party or Kirill Was Here.
Where do you find your models?
At this point they find me. It used to just be my friends and girls I would meet at parties. I am pretty good at convincing people that getting naked for me for free is a good idea so it would just be random people I meet. A lot of people use Model Mayhem but I haven’t really had good luck there. Twitter seems to be a pretty good way to meet models but you have to be at least a little bit established for that.
What advice do you have for guys or girls wanting to get into nude photography?
Photograph girls you know. Talk to friends and girlfriends and see if they would be interested. Tell them that you won’t use the photos without their permission. Hopefully you get some shots you can both be proud of. Never fuck girls over and do anything with photos they don’t want out there. I have a perfect reputation for keeping things secret so that people trust me and usually they will let me use photos they never thought they would let see the light of day. Once you have some decent images you can try sites like Model Mayhem or whatever and track down some more professional models. Don’t be a scumbag and don’t think you are going to make a living off of it. Do it for the images and people will want to work with you.
