Move Over, Nature Photography … It’s Time for Mature Photography

I just finished doing a week of a “Nature Challenge” with friends on Facebook, which is basically a cute game of posting “pictures of nature” on your wall every day for one week, nominating others to do the same, etc.

But the thing that bugged me — even as I played along and got to see my friends’ beautiful pics every day, too — is what we consider “nature.” We all act as if nature only consists of flowers, fields, mountains, and other animals … but not the human one.

I hate how our phrase “Nature Photography” inherently excludes people. It’s this separation of thought (“I am a person over here, but Nature is over THERE”) that then bleeds into all areas of our thinking, and it’s why it has been so easy for us to wreck the only environment we have. If society started to think of ourselves AS PART OF NATURE, then maybe we would wouldn’t be destroying the earth like we are so carelessly doing.

How ‘bout that? … Nude photography has the potential to save the world.

MY “Nature” Challenge:
Change has to start somewhere. So I am sharing this completely tasteful, artistic picture of me from behind, at the beach. Yup, I’m naked. Notice how the world did not end?

So this is me starting us off, giving myself permission to be a part of nature … well, because I am. Denying this is only hurting ourselves.

People are nature, too. I think it’s time for us to be mature about it.