This story links to the cover story, forming a partnered pair. Both stories roll within a generational sea change in sexual mores.
The cover story treats the massification of sex photo/video platform OnlyFans. And this companion treats the normalization of the sexy photo shoot. The tide has gone out, the landscape has changed, and everyone and their mother is doing fun and racy “boudoir shoots.”
To learn a bit more about the form and appeal of these shoots, I approached high-tone boudoir photographer Kristen Demai—ex-belly dancer and married mother of two.
Interview arranged, we met at Petaluma Tiki Bar Kapu over tropical drinks, under sunset lights. Demai had in tow her model-muse, a trad-wife sex-kitten named Brittney Leeanne.
As one reads, open kciboudier.com to see some, well, spreads. They are staged high-end hotel rooms, dirty bars, laundry rooms and grassy green pastures.
CH: Brittney, I wouldn’t guess it from your pin-up physique, but you had body-image issues following a toxic relationship and a body-changing medical disorder.
BL: I used boudoir photography with Kristen as a tool to rebuild my self-esteem, my self-worth and my self-love. I saw the progression across the shoots of how much I was healing. It’s a really liberating way of getting back to your core self.
KD: Early on in my career—10, 15 years ago—I learned that many women were doing this only for themselves—with no intention to share.
CH: Kristen, why do you choose to do this work?
KD: Growing up as a girl, you get mixed messages. You’re told you can do and be anything—and you are told that you can’t do this or that. Women and girls are judged in such a sexually charged way—the male gaze, I mean. I just hated the way society’s ideas and standards of beauty were imposed on my friends that I thought were so pretty but made to feel less than.
I rebel against what society pushes onto me—and I don’t want other people to feel that.
CH: So you don’t bring your own ideas of what is and isn’t sexy?
KD: I have no judgments. It’s all about what you feel sexy in—lacy lingerie, an old elephant printed tank top or a mumu.
CH: It sounds like a beautiful process—before intimacy, emotional safety…
Hire a shoot. For a partner, for a lover or for oneself, this Christmas, give the gift of nudes. KCI shoots digital but can print boudoir photos on glossy, metal or framed canvas. Visit kciboudier.com.
