Weekend Engagement: Nude Model or Nude Photographer?

@galenkp offers a weekly writing challenge, and this is my response to one of the prompts from Week 169. Prompt 2 asks, "You can either be a nude model being photographed or the photographer taking the shots of a nude model, which do you choose and why?"

Image created in Canva because I don't have a portfolio of suitable photos

Short answer: I'd much rather be the photographer.

Long answer: I don't like being the one front-and-center in anything, especially the camera lens, even when clothed. I don't generally share selfies. I'm also quite disinclined to disrobe. I am a somewhat prudish introvert, and I am OK with that.

I am also far more comfortable in the role of content creator in general. I don't claim to be an expert in photography, but I have dabbled in visual media for both art and advertising. I enjoy playing with light, shapes, and composition. I think the technical challenges of staging, camera settings, and editing would appeal to me.

Of course, the question of nude model and photographer raises several other questions as well. Is this highbrow art or something aimed squarely at more prurient interests? When I went to college, I often saw the photography class outside practicing sports and nature photography, and there were prints of a more... intimate nature... in the halls of the art department's building. Tasteful enough to not shock the average viewer attending public functions, of course. I neither took those classes nor signed up to model for them then.

Here on HIVE and its predecessor which shall not be named, there has been an undercurrent of lazy copy/paste pornography which tends to surge with the crypto market as lazy spammers try to grab quick internet cash. I know there is also a community of NSFW content creators who keep on keeping on regardless of market conditions. If I were to be a photographer of nude models, I could probably find support and learn a lot from the latter group.

Cynical answer: I'd earn a lot more HIVE sharing photographs of photogenic folks au naturel than by flaunting my lackluster physique.