Back in November I started thinking on how to expand my portraits. I enjoy portraiture and enjoy taking photos of people. I wanted to find more personality in portraits and started contemplating ways to get more genuineness to the person being photographed.
After many hours of contemplating I settled on the project I launched a while back. The concept is simple. Naked portraits. Portraits where the subject leaves the clothes. I have an idea that if the subject willingly dropped the clothing, perhaps also a lot of shielding around the personality would also be dropped. Nothing shown except what the portraitee is comfortable with, and the primary focus is on the face.
Clothing fills many purposes. Not just protection from the environment but also social signals, status, relevance and often social commitment and grouping. Without clothes we are all equal. We are all stripped of not just protection for our body, but perhaps also protection from our soul. Most people are pushed out of their comfort zone when they’re unclothed and this could also let out more personality.
As of writing this I have six portraits published (including a self-portrait) and since this is a long-term project of documenting the diversity of humans I’ll probably be at it for a long time! 🙂
