Nude on the net

My friend James has published nude photos of himself on several websites. Myself, I don't want to do that, because I'm afraid it might interfere with my job later. So I asked him to write a little for this blog about why he chose to do that and what he thinks about it today. (His photos can be seen at Xtube, GayWatch, penest and Nakenprat.)

I'm always asking Jo Kristian why he doesn't publish some of the nude photos that he has of himself, and agreeing to write a little piece for this blog is part of my attempts to persuade him... I've seen some of the photos and I think there would be more than I who would like to see them...

Some of my first nude photos were taken with an old camera which I had brought to a beach. It wasn't even a nude beach, but it wasn't really the season for swimming yet, so I had the beach to myself for a little. So I undressed, set the timer, walked a few steps away and hoped I had aimed well. I had to get the film developed at a local photographer, and was very happy to see that they were okay, even though they were not particularly focused...

Actually, I remember that I walked right home from the photo shop and jerked off, thinking of how the local photographer must have been studying my photographs...

It was a significant step from this to publishing them on xtube, facebook, flickr and other sites. I think maybe Flickr was the first site I posted them. For a moment, they were private, but I soon posted them to lots of groups on Flickr. It was a strange sensation to see the "Viewed by" counters grow rapidly. To me, it felt like the ultimate exhibitionism, because I knew that at any time, people could download the photos, meaning that for the rest of my life, people could be watching me naked without me knowing.

Then, of course, there were comments, and it felt great to see that others - far away - liked my naked body. So I continued publishing. (Then I was thrown out of Flickr, then Facebook - but that's just temporary setbacks...)

Some people are afraid that the photos will interfere with their professional lives, but I don't think too much about that. After all, still people don't want to tell everyone that they surf Xtube etc. But actually, I did have a strange occurence last summer. I had applied for a job as a waiter, and the guy interviewing me seemed suddenly to look a bit strange at a point during the interview. He didn't say anything, and I got the job - but then a few days later he told me that he had recognized me from Xtube. It was a bit strange to have a boss who had seen me jerking off in videos on Xtube - but luckily, people who visit Xtube wouldn't ordinarily hold that against you...

So Jo Kristian, what are you waiting for? :-)

I guess lots of my readers also have published photos online - what are your thoughts? Is that "the ultimate exhibitionism" as James calls it?

Nude runs

I'm fascinated by nude runs, nude cycling events and so on. It is quite obvious that lots of people want to be naked in public, but needs such an event to take the leap. It would be interesting to know how many people who have first been naked in such events, have thereafter been naked in public in other settings.

Or is it the other way round? Maybe the people who take part in nude runs have been secretly being nude in deserted places, and finally had the courage to be naked with lots of people around?

It is also interesting to see the amount of publicity such nude runs get. Is this a sign that there are lots of voyeurs in journalism? :-)

Sadly, I didn't go to Roskilde this year, so I could not take part in the nude run (or see the participants). So I guess I'll have to have my own nude run somewhere...

(Sorry for not blogging lately, by the way - I've been busy being naked on the beaches of Oslo in the warm weather we've had...)