“Would chimpanzees wear clothes if they had the intellectual ability to design and manufacture them? It's a bizarre idea, of course . . . but if they had and did, I predict they would use their clothes--as we do--as an artificial means of manipulating the sexuality of self and others.” - Dale Peterson Ph.D. - ‘Clothes and Nudity, Sex and Power’, Psychology Today, Online, July 25, 2011.
It was the last kilometer stretch before I would turn into our sub-division and ultimately home. My BMX lay on the edge of the deserted road at dusk. The late summer Alberta mosquitos swarmed me as I waded into the long grass of the ditch. There, like the Lost Ark of the Covenant, lay my tattered, dog-eared prize barely showing as I rode past. My life changed and I recall it vividly. My first hard-core porn magazine. Who would throw this in the ditch? Why --what-- She’s actually having sex!
That thing stayed under a box in my cupboard for probably six months. Before my Mum found it. Oh, the shame I felt. Grounded for a month to “understand how filthy this was, you have 3 sisters in the house!” Being 14 was a confusing year for me. I had seen Playboys at my friends place. His Dad had a stash in the downstairs bathroom. So I knew what a naked woman looked like but this was my introduction to what sex looked like. A filthy magazine thrown in the ditch on a country road.
That laid the way I viewed nudity for years. Naked + (sex + dirty) = shame.
Humans seem to offer two versions of the rules regarding shame and modesty. In one highly patriarchal society, men benefit in making the rules and women are covered head to toe. Clothes are used to control women and the wandering eye and interest of other men. Alternately, in a culture where women have more choice over their attire, they are closer to making the rules and benefit with increased control over the sexual interests of men. Here clothes are used to challenge concealment with “strategic revealment” (Dale Peterson, Ph.D.). Now, even the most liberal societies are patriarchal and there are limits to acceptability of revealing one’s body. Even classic paintings of the Master’s reveal breasts in abundance but the muse is posed in a way to avoid genitalia. Similar lines of acceptability exist in art nude photography where a shot may include genitalia as long as that is not the main focus of the work. That line is wide and very gray and absolutely subjective. I call it “The V Line”.
In a world now where a content creator selling self-filmed sexual videos on OnlyFans or Pornhub is called an artist and the video is art, how do I define art nude?
Personally, I think it’s about suggestibility. Ironically, I find lingerie, boudoir and implied shoots are more suggestive than many art nude shoots irregardless of how it’s defined. When I first started shooting, I thought boudoir would be a safe bet and I was nervous about nudity and how I would be perceived. As I worked with more nude models how I view nudity has changed. I remember getting to an outdoor location, setting my camera bag down, getting the camera set up and there was a nude woman ready to shoot. They seemed so at ease in their skin. I must admit, I was jealous of that. Yes, they were beautiful and attractive but they were so comfortable in their vulnerability. I still tingled with shame. And I was fully clothed!
What I have learnt is that I can work with a nude model and now I don’t even register her nudity. Every once in a while I ‘come to’ and have that moment where that part of my brain fires and I think “oh yeah, she has no clothes on”. However, I refocus just as quickly now. Don’t get me wrong, I still retain a level of respect and I will look away as they alter outfits or change poses so I acknowledge their vulnerability and am mindful of my position and angles but I no longer feel shame.
I have done some nude self-portraits because I want to know how that feels to look at myself nude. I am setting up a male nude shoot because I don’t want to limit nudity to women in my work. I am comfortable in my sexuality so I have no discomfort with male nudity. I have to admit as I evolve into exploring nudity in photography, I have explored my own identity and sexuality. I can separate nudity from sexuality but I am not ignorant to the fact that nudity does represent sexuality because sex involves nakedness. There is a paradox and I akin it to a Buddhist principle that something exists at the same time that it doesn’t. Quantum physics states the same. Both say that the observation of that state is what changes it.
I have started to embrace nudity separate from shame. That long standing neural pathway has grown and is no longer my automatic state. I have to acknowledge how my photography has changed this for me and that the models I have worked with have had this deep effect on me. They have helped me accept my own body more and to accept that women are not objects of my own satisfaction. I see that by controlling my own urges and morality that I have developed a rather profound respect and sadness for the struggle women face in our patriarchal society.
To acknowledge that this shift in myself comes from photography is still baffling and I wish I could figure out a way to teach it to my men’s groups and male coaching clients.
Well written and well stated. I came to photography via several simultaneous routes but model photography in particular grabbed me and in the wake of a disastrous breakup my portrayal of women was simply as mythic monsters, dark and shadowy. Over the course of several years, I realized I was interacting with and portraying models differently -- they became whole people and I began to let the light in more. My fear and anger was receding and I began to find their joy and placement in the world more attractive. It's an amazing journey with tangible results, if no actual finish line.