This book is not a compilation of 'Do's and Dont's.' It seeks to organize thought on the part of photographers, directors and models as to where posing for camera begins and how it is accomplished. Step by step, we will take the major and minor components of the posing figure and show how they function in relation to the camera - their possibilities and their limitations.

Once you know how the figure functions, and the results thereby obtained, it is up to you to decide whether the pose is desirable or undesirable for the job at hand. For instance, a certain hand position during your posing for camera may be generally recognized as awkward or conspicuous. This position would be undesirable if you wanted your picture to express grace and loveliness. On the other hand, it could very well serve to characterize a gangling teenager or call attention to an object or important copy in an advertisement.

This book is not meant to impose our personal opinions upon you. Its intent is to increase your awareness of how symmetry of figure in pictures follows a consistent pattern. That pattern, when analyzed, establishes basic truths that beat like a motif throughout prize-winning and time-tested pictures. These truths are the fundamentals of posing for camera, of which we speak.

All art (and we do consider posing for camera an art) as well as a science, has its basic fundamentals. Teachers readily admit that rules have a tendency, at first, to be confining. However, after they are learned well, creativity springs from the sound foundation they form.

As your skill and knowledge develop, you yourself will burst the confines of these basics of posing for camera to improvise in good taste. No longer will you be laden with technicalities; you will be free to create.

However, neither personal flourishes, style changes nor photographic trends will ever radically affect the value of good fundamentals of posing for camera. They can always be intelligently adapted to fit the times and situation.

Throughout this book, references are made to the model, the director and the photographer. Let us define these terms so that we have a clear understanding:

The model is any person, regardless of experience, age or sex, who appears before the camera. Although we refer to the model as she because the majority of models are female this term also includes any male subject who is posing for camera. The director is the person who has the completed picture in mind and whose job it is to call forth the needed position and response from the model. Regardless of whether he is called floor director, talent director or production director, his specific responsibility is control of the personnel and not the camera.

The photographer whether amateur or professional, is the person responsible for the camera's behavior and, in most instances, is also the director of model action. It is to this director phase of his photographic endeavors that this book is addressed.

A quick glance through the illustrations in this book may provoke the questions:

'Why all the clocks and geometric symbols?' 'What have they to do with posing for camera?'

You will also note, this book is divided into two parts, the basic and the advanced techniques of posing for camera. The purpose of this has been to separate the fundamental repertoire of the beginner from the varied and creative potential of the advanced photographer and model.

If you are a beginner, start at the beginning. Concentrate on a few basic positions of each part of the body. Learn them well and then go on to others. Worthwhile creation in any art cannot begin until you have gone through and graduated from your basic rules and fundamentals of posing for camera.

A good illustration of this happened several years ago when a disheartened young model poured out her troubles to us. She had become a popular model with no effort at all. Directors and photographers had been eager to photograph her. She was wholesomely attractive, vibrant and spontaneous in her poses. Her pictures had been an immediate success. Modeling and posing for camera was the perfect profession for her. Everyone had told her so.

Then, all of a sudden nothing was right. Assignments were increasingly difficult and tedious. Results were amateurish and disappointing. Photographers were no longer satisfied. Something had gone wrong and she could not put her finger on the cause.

We could picture what had happened, for it happens over and over again. She had skipped through one assignment to another in happy oblivion until one day she was asked to do something different, something more exacting - and she didn't know what to do first. From that moment on everything went wrong. As she lost confidence, her posing for camera became stiff and frozen. Fear crept into her pictures and all signs of her natural ease and talent disappeared.

We explained to the young model that there is a big difference between being natural and acting natural. One is a happy accident and the other is a studied and consistent talent. Once you know how, this pseudo-naturalness can be called forth over and over again at command during posing for camera.

Nothing is so fatal to talent as too early success based only upon beginner's luck; nothing is so damaging in the long run, as the brash assumption that a bright smile, or flash inspiration can ever be a satisfactory substitute for experience.

A good craftsman must learn his art in all its dimensions. This girl had the courage to go back and start at the beginning. She had to study the fundamentals of what comprises a natural body position and what thought will photograph as a spontaneous expression. Once these tools and knowledge were hers, combined with her individual charm, she had a permanent combination that was hard to beat. And today, she enjoys a career as a top-flight model.

This example also holds true of the beginning director or cameraman whose first or second series of pictures show promise, natural flair and are successful.

But no matter who you are, or what your profession, if you are a talented beginner, and do the right thing without knowing why, you must eventually retrace your steps and learn basic principles if you wish to step into the ranks of reliable craftsmen and have your work maintain a consistent professional level.

If you are experienced in the field of posing for camera - you can start anywhere in the book. The beginning chapters will, however, acquaint you with some of the terminology used in the advanced section as well as give you insight into working with a beginner, while the second section of the book is intended to serve as source for creative variations of all basic positions.

You will find these variations in movement and thinking organized into a mental filing system which makes hundreds of positions and their changes available to your searching mind at the moment when you need them most.

Each of the two sections of the book, basic and advanced, has been similarly divided into four major parts - the body, the legs, the arms and the head. This is no arbitrary arrangement. It is the logical order of posing for camera.

Body - because it is the largest and most prominent mass, is your starting point. Legs - support the body and must therefore be considered next.

Arms - coordinate the design of the picture and act as liaison between the body and the facial message.

Head - is posed last because expressions must be caught at their peak of spontaneity. Facial expression climaxes the mood and message of the complete arrangement.

This progression of posing for camera, whether basic or advanced, makes no rules but states facts and proven results. Use what you will and discard what seems unimportant.

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