Poses which make no sense

Which popular poses make you wonder what the fuss is about?

Mine is the ever present woman stood next to a wall, her nearest arm extended with hand caressing the wall.

Have you ever seen a woman naturally strike this pose?

"Natural" poses are rarely photogenic.

I'm hoping for some pics to go in this thread. Kinda like a bloopers show

It is not really about being natural, it is about getting a great photo.

What is great about a woman hugging a wall?

Is context so irrelevant?

A great photo has you going back, and back again, for another look.

nathancarter wrote in post #17828468
"Natural" poses are rarely photogenic.

I would argue that openly forced poses with no context may be superficially attractive but lack substance.

That's why posing is an art in itself. Kinda like shaving: a bad shave is worse than no shave, which is not to say that some of us won't look unkempt with no shave.

It must be done, and it must be done right.

I'm an artist, so I guess this is where my opinion - for what it's worth - is coming from. I like to see a story in the image, whether it's told in the expression or lines of a face, or the body indicating what's going on. Some of the poses (especially of young women) look contorted and screamingly uncomfortable without actually conveying any information as to the reason for the position, my reaction is usually WTH is she supposed to be doing? - not, wow, what a great image.

I disagree that natural poses aren't photogenic- to me a natural pose that catches the beauty of a slice of life, and tells you what's happening, whatever the subject, is the goal. It's fun to test the extremes and break rules, this is how we build our skills, but it takes skill and experience to make it work as art. And, conversely, to know when it isn't working.

A LOT of those "high fashion" poses with the stick figure-esque models. I see a lot of those poses and go "WTH??" LOL

In 100% natural poses, Fat people tend to look fat, jowly people look jowly, people with weak chins look weak. The art of posing is to find poses that flatter the subject without distortung them or making them look uncomfortable. Occasionally a poses can make its own reality, sure nobody poses hugging a wall, or in about 80% of budiour poses but if the eye contact, expression, and body language send the right message then thats all that matters.

What's wrong with hugging a wall? Looks natural to me: http://papertastebuds.​com …11/08/055Hug4_K​eetra1.jpg

If I photographed my models acting natural, I'd have a lot of photographs of people slumping, looking at their phones.

absplastic wrote in post #17903722
If I photographed my models acting natural, I'd have a lot of photographs of people slumping, looking at their phones.

No, they have to look up sometimes for the selfies.

Wifey and I had professional shots done before we got married. I thought the photog was contorting us into really odd positions. But we were quite happy with the results. Those pics are some of the best shots of me ever taken. I look horrible in most pictures.

I have seen some silly fashion poses, though. Then again, I've seen some silly fashions.

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Gungnir wrote in post #17827482
Which popular poses make you wonder what the fuss is about?
Mine is the ever present woman stood next to a wall, her nearest arm extended with hand caressing the wall.
Have you ever seen a woman naturally strike this pose?

It would be helpful for you to post a link to a photo showing this kind of pose, so that those of us who don't know what you mean could have a visual example to view.
Then we could better attempt to answer the question you posed in the 3rd sentence.

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