Why I Shoot Nudes

I’m a nude photographer, sometimes literally, as befitting a nudist (if shooting with a fellow nudist or nude-friendly people), but I mean more so that I like to shoot nudes. Because of the social attitudes that surround nudity, that can cause some confusion and misconceptions to people who do not understand nude art. Even in more nude-tolerant cultures, nudity is largely taboo and highly sexualised. So here are my many reasons I shoot nudes:

Note: this article is illustrated with nude photography.

Photo by the author, from the series Living.

The purest expression of humanity.

Perhaps most fundamentally, I feel naked people are the most real versions of themselves. Not clouded by the messaging of clothing; of costume, of uniform, of fashion, of culture. Literally stripped of all that, an individual becomes who they are in that very moment, not who we assume them to be via the picture of themselves they present from external signifiers.

Of course, it isn’t possible, even when naked, to strip away every marker that might lead us to form a certain view of a person from their image alone: Many people now have tattoos and piercings, and even the naked body has fashions, in how we style our hair, or remove our hair. Plus of course, the body itself tells a story of who we are and where we’ve been, in scars, stretch marks, and more.