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Edel Kelly of Secret Boudoir: 'Women find the whole process liberating'

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Words: Ros Drinkwater

The

photographic phenomenon of the past several years

has been the rise of what's termed boudoir photography,

up-close-and-personal photographs of regular people (as opposed to celebrities), commissioned by them as gifts for

their loved ones.

They are particularly popular among brides-to-be and women whose partners are working or serving overseas.

In modern times, the idea was planted in female consciousness in the 1940s and 1950s with pin-up photography, a genre that reached its zenith when Marilyn Monroe posed for the first ever issue of Playboy in 1953. It was to take an-

other half century before women woke up to the fact that you don't have to be famous to be the subject ofa glamorous portrait and began asking -why not me?

EdelKelly is proprietor of Secret boudoir, Ireland's only dedicated boudoir photography studio, Staffed exclusively by women, it's a business that aims to make women's dreams come true. It should be made clear that we're not talking adult magazines although the degreeofrisque-ness varies, the overwhelming emphasis is on the aesthetic quality of the images, rather than their appeal as erotica, I'd hazard a guess that at some point in the future Kelly will make her name as a fine art photographer, but unusually she's an artist with a good head for business and she has successfully identified a

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niche market to establish what has become her second career.

We meet in her central Dublin studio, surrounded by her beautiful pictures images calculated to put even the most nervous client at ease the and tools of the trade: glamorous wigs and costumes that range from ethereal to burlesque, and props such as a huge shocking pink feather she has used to witty effect on a portrait of a nude mother-tobe.

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get into the boudoir business? Kelly's" background couldn't be more

unexpected.

"Growing up, I was always artis-

tic," she says. "But I also have a technical mind and come from a family of engineers and mechanics, so when I left school I decided to study engineering. After a five-year

drinkwater

in Sligo and Coventry I got my degree in manufacturing systerns and technology, and found work designing security systems forbanks."

In 2007 she landed ajob as senior design engineer with an Irish company contracted by the US Air Force to manufacture maintenance stands for tankers that refuel planes in the air. This entailed not only designing the product but overseeing its production and installation. The job was well-paid and rewarding, but Kelly had an itch to start her course

own business,

"The catalyst was a four-month trip I took on my own round ten countries in Africa. I'd bought a good camera and found I really enjoyed taking pictures of people, so as soon as I got back I signed up for a photography course at Grif-

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fith College in

Dublin," she says.

Having completed the

course,

her business savvy kicked in. "The obvious route was to opt for general photography, stuff like portraits and weddings, but I decided to specialise. My final year project at college had been fine art nudes, focusing on the shapes and textures of the body. I was showing the pictures to a friend and she said 'Oh this is just like boudoir photogra-

phy'.

"I did a little bit of research and found that the genre is massive in

Britain and the US, but here,

although a few photographic firms do a certain amount of it, no one was offering a dedicated boudoir service. So I decided to go for it."

Kelly's earliest clients were mostly brides-to-be. "I was featured on the Weddings Online internet forum, and I got a lot of business from that from women wanting something special for their partners," she says.

"But people come with requests for pictures to mark every occasion birthdays, anniversaries, St Valentine's Day. I've had every kind of woman you can imagine, aged from 20 to 60, and every shape and size including pregnant women fathers love to be involved in these,

-

a close up of their hands on the bump is a popular shot. Then, of course, after the baby's arrived, a woman wants to feel glamorous again and celebrate getting her figure back."

Kelly's portraits are not always done with a man in mind. "Women find the whole process liberating, It's extraordinary the number of clients who say 'I've always wanted to

have this done'," she says. " Mothers and daughters come in together, seeing the session as a treat on a day out, and there are women who want a good set of pictures to give them a boost for all kinds of reasons, from a relationship gone wrong to a health crisis such as the loss of hair through cancer.

"I also have clients who decide to treat themselves because they've lost weight- if you've dropped four stone, you want to capture your new self on camera."

As Kelly sees it, past generations would have been shy about having anything more than a conventional portrait taken, but that attitude has

changed.

"In the last decade, Irish women have really come around to enjoying the benefits of making the most of themselves with the right make-

up and clothes, and a good set of pictures is the icing on the cake," she says.

Packages start at €300, which in- ;' eludes the makeover, the photo shoot and a book of retouched

"

images.

"Most women arrive with a clear idea of what they want, sometimes bringing pictures from magazines of the kind of image they're after," says Kelly. "Some opt for a romantic, feminine style, others want a bit

of tongue-in-cheek fun in their picposes and props like fishnet tights, garters tures, with pin-up style

and suspenders."

With the concept arrived at, makeover team Kellie Dowdell and Emma Farrell get to work. All retouching and printing is done inhouse, so privacy is guaranteed, The client buys the copyright, so there is no danger of the pictures turning up elsewhere, Heaven alone knows what Germaine Greer would make of it, but there's no denying that boudoir is in tune with the times (the Playboy Club, with its Bunny girls, is due to reopen in London later this year), Perhaps, in recession, we need that little bit of fun and frivolity,

www.boudoir.ie

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