During the halftime break of a World Cup match, I saw a television commercial for Blootgewoon.nl, a Dutch campaign promoting naturism from the NFN. It was a welcome change from all the commercials trying to sell us something. This one was not selling a product. It was about a way of life: naturism.
It brought me back to my childhood. My parents were not “real” nudists. We did not stay at naturist campsites. Yet being without clothes was often perfectly normal for us, especially on the endless beaches and dunes near Bordeaux.
My father also loved photography. He often photographed my mother, sometimes topless or nude. In their bedroom hung a huge photograph of her standing in a rocky riverbed in the Ardèche. Friends who saw it when they came over to play thought it was strange. I was proud of it. To me, it was an expression of affection.
That undoubtedly shaped the way I see the unclothed body. Even at the age of ten, I defended the fact that a topless photograph of my mother was hanging in our home. To me, that was what was normal. I notice the same attitude in my own photography. I enjoy creating that relaxed atmosphere of unselfconscious nakedness in nature together with a model. I do not stage too much. For my projects Models Nature and Nearby Nature, the model and I simply go for a walk and look for places that inspire us.
A shoot like that has a great deal in common with naturist recreation. Fortunately, being nude outdoors is not automatically illegal in the Netherlands. Dutch law allows it in places that are considered “reasonably suitable” for nude recreation, such as a quiet woodland area or a secluded beach. From time to time, I have also photographed in places that may seem less suitable at first glance, including locations in Nijmegen. My own rule is simple: do not impose it on anyone. I wait for quiet moments and make sure the model can cover up when other people approach.
And yet simply being nude is no longer quite as ordinary as it once was. Many people spend a large part of their free time on social media, where the unclothed human body has become a rare sight. To avoid controversy and moderation problems, almost all major platforms enforce very strict rules on nudity. Not because every nude image is inherently problematic, but because algorithms do not understand context. They do not distinguish between erotic imagery, art, documentary photography or simply a human body.
My own account has been restricted several times, and twice it was removed completely. It is online again now, but only with artificial interventions such as bars covering nipples. The result is that we are becoming less and less accustomed to ordinary, non-sexual nakedness.
The NFN commercial unexpectedly brought me back to my childhood. Not because I suddenly feel the need to stay at a naturist campsite, but because it reminded me how natural being nude once felt: on the beach, among the dunes, without anyone making an issue of it.
Perhaps that is the most important message:
Not that everyone should become a naturist, and not that everyone has to appreciate artistic nude photography, but that the human body does not automatically have to be sexual or shocking. It can also be something beautiful, familiar and entirely ordinary.
Simply nude.
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