Nothing To Hide (2010)
To share your weakness is to make yourself vulnerable; to make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength. ― Criss Jami
[one_half padding=”4px 10px 0 4px”]Last week’s project was incredibly time-intensive, taking up several hours of my day, every day, in order to have the videos ready for the next morning. After all that, I’m ready for a week where I don’t have to think quite so hard or worry about doing everything wrong. My first thought for this week was to make it totally random, to just open up a folder, close my eyes, and click on a picture. However, when I opened an archive folder I discovered that the first several, from 2009-2010, all contained naked people and, with one exception, none had appeared in any other #POTD series before now. In fact, most are not even in my art portfolio. They’re not bad shots, just unused. So, what we have this week, through the process of semi-blind selection, is random (sort of) naked people.
The next question was what to write. I’ve talked about the virtues of posing nude so many times before I’m not sure I have another seven days worth of words to talk about the subject. Would I find something different to write about?
Thank you, Sharon Stone. The 57-year-old actress, who has a new television series starting this fall, appears nude in front of Mark Abrahams’ camera for the September issue of Harper’s Bazaar magazine. I didn’t request permission to show any of the pictures here, but you can see them and read the article online on their website. There’s a lot in this article that is important regarding who we are, our self-esteem, and being honest about ourselves regardless of our age or what we’re doing with our lives. For everyone who thinks that posing nude isn’t classy or demeans one’s femininity, please take a moment to read what Ms. Stone has to say. Not only is her perspective unique, she looks much better saying it than I would. [/one_half]
[one_half_last padding=”4px 4px 0 10px”]Sharon has earned the right to be rather frank, though I don’t think we ever thought of her as being shrinking violet. The actress suffered an aneurysm resulting in a nine-day cerebral hemorrhage. This is the type of thing that kills most people, and those who do survive often have difficulty walking and/or talking ever again. Talk about clawing your way back up from the absolute bottom, Sharon Stone has done just that and now that she’s back in the limelight she doesn’t mind talking about the reality of being naked.
“I’m aware that my ass looks like a bag of flapjacks, but I’m not trying to be the best-looking broad in the world. At a certain point you start asking yourself, ‘What really is sexy?’ It’s not just the elevation of your boobs. It’s being present and having fun and liking yourself enough to like the person that’s with you.”
Had she said something like that in 1992 when Basic Instinct came out, we probably would have dismissed it as being self-serving. Now, though, it’s a statement of triumph over a set of circumstances that would have left most people relegated to a treatment center for the rest of their lives. Not Sharon Stone, though. She’s re-gathered, despite permanent brain damage, and moved forward. Naked.
I will always applaud those strong enough to be naked, whether literally in front of a camera, or figuratively in how they live their lives. Naked people are the strong ones, the wise ones, the ones who endure. Perhaps the rest of you should step up and get with the plan.[/one_half_last]