Getting Neked

Or "When Gillian discovered she was borderline naturist"



I've just had a rather interesting and fun day and before I got home it was on the BBC news website here

What a day, a real eye opener. We had a trek to the first photo point, there was a guy treking naked, as I walked behind watching his bouncing buttocks I was struck by the parallel to trannying, here was this guy doing what he wanted to do and no one was freaked by it, he was also having a normal everyday conversation with the girl walking alongside him. I wondered if this was a big deal to him that he was getting to do this. While a younger scared Gillian would have thought 'Oh I want to go out wearing a dress' I wonder if he'd have thought 'Oh I want to go out wearing nothing at all'. I do have a photo of him from the front but trust me you don't want to see that.

The first shoot (or installation as we call them daaahling) was amongst the rocks overlooking the retreating glacier that was the symbol for the environmental effects of global warming. A tad freaky to be sitting there one minute then standing up and getting your kit off in front of the rather nice work colleage and her friend you brought along. It didn't take long at all to feel ok with it and then it really took on a kind of stark beauty - I got it. At one point we were all standing facing the camera, all these naked people, no one smiling, hands at our sides looking at this thing that was being destroyed was so moving, I felt my eyes get watery.

Then kit on, lunch and off onto the glacier proper, strip off, into little white shoes with a white mat to protect your bum and we traipse before the camera, again incredibly incredibly moving, the setting, the silence the naturalness of everyone being stark bollock naked, beautiful so amazingly tragically beautiful.

Unfortunately we had to miss the last installation as we were told everyone with a train to catch should leave now. About half the 550 strong group had to leave, as we climbed back up from the glacier, the thought came to mind that it might make a nice pic to do our own shots with the Specncer Tunick crowd in the background a couple of looks at each other and the three of us stripped off and did it and I think the photos are damn good. Two in particular are fab but I can't post them as theres other people in them.
Again I felt a parallel to trannying, the three of us stripping again could not have felt more natural, while we were taking one pic an old lady wandered over to ask if she could take one, 'yeah sure why not' all this while dozens of people wandered past. Then when we dressed and carried on we passed a lake with a group skinny dipping in it

This was a rather special day, made more so by the fact that I didn't expect anything from it, I was just doing it from curiosity. Isn't that pic of the glacier beautiful? it's retreated 120 metres in the last two years, it'll be gone in our lifetimes.

Oh and no I hadn't been swimming but yes it was cold!