Simply-Gorgeous PhotoShoot Inspirations
Goddess Iconography and the Sacred Feminine

The Simply-Gorgeous style of photography, of gorgeous girls, well photographed, in attractive outdoor locations, is strongly influenced by Classic Calendar Photography. The pictures in our Simply-Gorgeous PhotoShoots concentrate on 4 quite specific themes: English country girl, tropical island girl, Goddess, and wet-look.

English Country Girl Tropical Island Girl Goddess Wet Look

We like to do those types of picture, basically, because they produce very attractive images. At first sight, our pictures are a bit similar to "Page-3" pictures, possibly more classy and artistic. Indeed, many girls who do our PhotoShoots end up sending some of their pictures in to competitions like Page 3 Idol, or to Nuts and ZOO. But our pictures are actually "more" than Page-3 images, because they all incorporate elements of fantasy. You will never see, in real life, a girl taking a country walk, in the way we depict the country walks in our PhotoShoots; and you will never see a girl on a tropical island looking quite the way that our girls do; and you will never a girl dressed in a white dress like Maria besides a statue of Venus. These images all depict "fantasies". They are constructions that come out of the mind, and which the photographer has "recreated" for a moment in the real world, for the purpose of taking the photos.

Tropical Island Girls One of the main sources that has inspired and influenced our style of photography is Classic Calendar Photography. The Tropical Island Girl is a recurring theme in Classic Calendars, and in all our PhotoShoots.
	The earliest paintings to depict Tropical Island Girls are the works of the painters Gauguin and Rousseau (see painting at left). The paintings of Rousseau are pure fantasy. No-one has ever actually seen a real girl in a jungle like this. His images are purely artistic works of imagination. Rousseau (who painted the picture shown left) never left Paris, but painted from tropical plants that he had seen in botanical gardens in Paris, and from his imagination.
Looking for Paradise The TV series Around the World in 80 Gardens included an hour-long film titled Looking for Paradise. TV gardener Monty Don travelled around South East Asia, and Bali, looking for an original tropical garden. He began with some interesting speculation about why topical gardens and exotic plants fascinate us: "Why do we hanker after the exotic?... Is it because what we cannot have always seems more tempting... Or is there some instinctive response to the lush and tropical... The richness of tropical plants suggests a freer, less inhibited life... It has become part of our fanciful Western culture that the East holds slightly wicked and yet delightfully innocent pleasures..." He was unable to find a real tropical garden, because it's a fantasy that exists only in our minds. Jungian Interpretation - The Mother Goddess It is claimed by people who study the theories of the psychologist Jung, that the rich exotic foliage symbolises fecundity and fertility, and that these images are "architypes" of the "Mother Goddess".

Girls, Flowers, Water, and Goddesses One of the sources that has inspired and influenced our style of photography is Classic Calendar Photography. We also note on that page that some recurring themes found in Classic Calendar Photography, and in our PhotoShoots, are also found in some well-known works of art. Consider these two paintings, by Botticelli:

The Birth of Venus Primavera - Spring

The first of these paintings depicts "Venus" rising from the sea. The second painting shows a girl among flowers and mythological characters, in a wood. These themes are very close to the themes about girls in flowers, and girls drenched in water, and girls as goddesses, that recur in our PhotoShoots. At first sight, the Botticelli paintings, seem to be attractive images. Indeed, these pictures are frequently found on sale in poster shops, as they are popular posters which people like to hang on their walls. There has been much speculation about whether these paintings have deeper meanings, and what that meaning might be. Long-term visitors to this site may realise that this page has been through several substantial revisions, as our thoughts about these questions develop and change. Loads of stuff has been added, at various times, and loads removed.

The Sacred Feminine - The White Goddess What does all this stuff about Goddess actually mean? And what do real girls, and their pictures, actually have to do with Goddess, if anything? These questions are not easy to answer. There is a huge entry for "Goddess" on Wikipedia (Goddess (Wikipedia)). But the huge mass of academic speculation there doesn't really answer any of the important questions. Below are two thinkers who seem have got near to asking, and answering, the important questions: Robert Graves - The White Goddess Robert Graves wrote a book called "The White Goddess". A large amount of the book comes into the "huge mass of unhelpful material" category. But some of what he tells us in his introduction, about his own thoughts, may be more helpful: "... Today is a civilisation in which money can buy anything, except the truth. Call me the fox who has lost his brush; I am nobody's servant and have chosen to live on the outskirts of a mountain village, where life is still ruled ny the old agricultural cycle. Without my contact with urban civilisation, all that I write must seem irrelevant to such of you who are still geared to the industrial machine. If you are poets, you will realise that the acceptance of my thesis commits you to a confession of disloyalty which you will be loth to make; you chose your jobs because they promised to provide you with a steady income, and the leisure to render the Goddess whom you adore, just part-time service. Who am I to warn you that she demands either whole-time service or none at all? And do I suggest that you resign your jobs and turn romantic shepherds? No; I dare attempt only a historical statement of the problem; how you come to terms with the Goddess is no concern of mine. I do not even know that you are serious." Joseph Campbell A second writer, very thoughtful on these matters, is Joseph Campbell. He has written numerous scholarly books. His most notable is "The Hero with a Thousand Faces". He makes some speculations along the lines that "the Goddess is incarnate in every woman" (Hero, p118, paperback edition). You won't find the answers to fundamental questions in Wikipedia. The best you can do is to read the material in books like the those mentioned here, and think about what it all means.

Robert Graves wrote "The White Goddess" shortly after completing a novel about the myth of Jason and the Golden Fleece. It was pondering over the ideas behind that myth, that seemed to have influenced him in some ways. Greek Myths Jason and the Golden Fleece Many myths and stories involve a male adventure, where women act as guides, temptations, and possibly more. One of the most ancient of these myths is the story of Jason and the Golden Fleece. In his quest to find the magical Golden Fleece, Jason encounters many different women. He is aided by exclusively female Goddesses; he is tempted by the Sirens; and at the end of the adventure captures the Golden Fleece with the help of Medea, a Princess.

	Goddess Images Why are female images (statues, or pictures) so fascinating? This classical topless statue is an image often called "Celestial Venus".
	This sequence of stills is from the Kevin Kline/Michelle Pfeiffer film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
	In this scene, the hero of the story, Bottom the Weaver, is at the wedding of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. In the garden of the mansion where the wedding is being held, he notices this statue of Venus.
	The statue has a strange attraction, though none of his friends are affected in the same way. The way this scene was filmed was trying to make a point: that the statue was not simply beautiful in its own right, but that it was capable of evoking curious feelings or memories, in people who see it.

The Attraction of Large Breasts The human body is the most commonly depicted object in art. This figurine shown right is known as the Venus of Willendorf. It was made 30,000 years ago. It is now kept in the Natural History Museum in Vienna, and is valued at $60M. The curious thing about the figure is that it has no proper face or arms, just a very large pair of pendulous breasts.
This image was the dominant image in primative art throughout Europe over a period of 20,000 years, until 10,000 years ago. Here are some more examples of identical figurines, found across the whole of Europe...
	These images are not meant to represent individual real women. The faces and limbs were left out of the images. They are artficial exaggerations of an abstract symbol. This shape of female breasts is apparently the most important visual symbol there is to the human mind.

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