Naked Shelves?

As the author of ReNude Pride, I’m always carefully trolling the internet in order to find interesting and non-sexually explicit photographs to use on this site. I’m not intending to be a prude, but rather, a realist. I don’t want to use any image that someone, somewhere, finds offensive, sexually suggestive or grossly insensitive. It’s a fine line to walk but in the interests of this site, I’m willing to tread cautiously and be as careful as I am able.

I discovered the photograph above earlier this month. It immediately caught my attention and I began to wonder: “What did the photographer have in mind when he posed the models here?” I saved the image to my computer and when Aaron, my husband, came home from work later, I showed it to him and asked what he thought.

“Easy.” he replied. “It’s a gay ‘cash and carry.’ You go to the beach, shop for the guy you want to be seen with, pay the cash and carry him to the beach with you.” I’m not quite sure exactly what had happened at his job, but his mind definitely wasn’t “out of the gutter” once he returned home. Such a facetious and risque comment, plus his mood let me know that further discussion would be counter-productive. Clearly I needed at least a second opinion.

I emailed a copy of the picture to my identical twin brother, Alex, and his spouse asking them to form a consensus as to the meaning of the image. My brother replied the next morning that they couldn’t reach an agreement on a meaning so it must be one of two things: either naked corpses piled in a morgue (too depressing and morbid) or else a gay nudist’s dating delicatessen where you show up, select your date for the evening, pay, and go on your way. Too close to Aaron’s answer for my liking.

Three different same gender loving (gay) bare practitioners (naturist/nudist) asked and three distinct answers. My batting average on this dilemma was worse than I could have ever imagined. I thought about contacting my first cousin, Michael, also a gay nudist, as to his thoughts on the subject but quickly dismissed that notion. He teaches art in secondary school and is an artist in his own right. Who knows what type of interpretation he would have offered.

I felt it best to abandon the idea of polling a few others and go with my own perspective on the photographer’s intentions. With my track record, the UK and the EU would resolve the Brexit crisis before I could end the stalemate over the photo. The resolution simply wasn’t worth the effort required.

In spite of my futile efforts into researching for this post, I decided that I’d abandon all pretense of objectivity and simply offer my own impression on what I think the artist/photographer had in mind when he posed these bare gentlemen for this picture. Given the graduated shade in the image, I believe the meaning to be the lower the man, the higher his exposure to the sunlight. Thus the “bottom” man is the one with the least amount of suntan. The highest man has reached his greatest sunlight exposure and is therefore granted the most shade (protection) from the sun.

This is my insight on what this photo represents. I have no way of knowing what the photographer intended the image to reflect. If anyone reading or visiting here has any different thoughts, please feel free to use the comments section below and share. The more ideas, the better for us all! Even within my own small family-circle, we each have our own version.

Art may reflect life, but the living interpret the art. Among the living, bare practitioners (naturists/nudists) see whatever they please!

Naked hugs!

Roger/ReNude Pride