Boudoir photo shoots all the rage

Risque setting appeals to middle-aged women as much as brides

Lisa Holmes takes “boudoir” photos of a woman. Holmes says the sexy photo sessions are a booming business.

Photograph by: Greg Southam, The Journal, Edmonton Journal

EDMONTOn – For their wedding, Erin is giving her fiance a little black book.

Phone numbers, of course, would not be appropriate for a married man; instead, the volume will contain glamour shots of his soon-to-be wife lounging in lacy lingerie and not much else.

Erin posed for the photos Sunday at a local bed and breakfast. Her hair tousled and her lips a shimmery rouge, the slender 26-year-old worked it on a double bed, sex written all over her.

Erin, who withheld her last name to preserve the racy surprise for her fiance, was one of three women who sat down for Sunday’s “marathon” boudoir photography shoot with Lisa Holmes of Edmonton Boudoir Photography.

Boudoir, where women pose for a set of provocative photos, is a fast-growing market in the photography industry, said Holmes. It’s become so lucrative the former wedding photographer now specializes only in this niche.

“I’ve given up doing families and weddings … because (boudoir) is such a popular thing right now,” said Holmes, who started Edmonton Boudoir Photography in January 2009 with fellow photographer Rebecca McKay.

At the time, she said, “there weren’t many people in Edmonton that did it. Now it’s pretty crazy. There’s boudoir photographers everywhere.”

Holmes and McKay do marathon sessions several times a year, accommodating up to 15 women each time. Some are themed; in March their clients posed as pin-up models. They also offer private sessions by appointment.

At each marathon, freelance makeup artist Rebecca Nantel and hairstylist Kathy Lieske get clients dolled up for their hour-long shoots.

Props, ranging from bras to boas, are available for those who don’t already have a vision in mind. The package costs $300.

Developing the photos, either into an album or as a collection of digital files, is extra.

Erin has wanted to pose for a boudoir session for some time. The timing now is right, she said, with her August wedding just around the corner and her military fiance’s recent return from Afghanistan.

“He’s going to love it,” she said. “And it’s kinda a gift for myself, really, because I don’t get to do anything like this (normally).”

The mother of a 14-month-old child described herself as a “jeans and T-shirt kind of girl” but on Sunday, Erin went for a “bedroom look — a Maxim magazine cover,” she said with a laugh.

Holmes estimates that about 40 per cent of her clientele are over 45 years old, while many others are young brides.

“We’ve had a lot of military wives whose husbands are still serving so they send (the albums) overseas,” she said. “We had a lady that came in just before she was going in for a mastectomy. She wanted some pictures of how she looked now before she went in for her operation. Or people celebrating weight loss — they’ll use this as their goal.”

Winter is a popular time for boudoir, said Holmes. “We had to do two extra marathons in January for all of the business we got for Valentine’s Day this year.”

The rise of boudoir, she mused, may be linked to how comfortable people feel with themselves these days, in our high-tech world where everything is shared. For those less at ease, it can be transformative.

“To do boudoir, it’s a big risk. You have to come in here and have some self-confidence,” said Holmes. “We want it to be about empowering women and celebrating beauty, making people feel beautiful inside.”
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