What Artistic Nudity Means to Me

What Artistic Nudity Means to Me

Someone asked me the other day what "artistic nudity" even is. Fair question. The phrase gets used to make nudity sound more respectable than it is, and I don't want to hide behind it.

For me it's simpler. Some days I photograph my body not to show skin, but to record how it feels to stand in a room with nothing between me and the air. The light does most of the work. I just stand there.

I don't think I look perfect, and I've stopped trying to. The interesting part is what shows up when I'm not arranging myself: a slouch, a scar, a hand resting somewhere it wouldn't in a posed shot. Those are the honest parts.

This image is a preview of a longer set I'm slowly putting together. It's about vulnerability, which sounds grand, but really it just means I didn't crop out the parts I used to hide.

If you look at it and feel something, good. If you look and feel nothing, that's fine too. It's just a body, and that's the point.

— Will