Rainy day naked

We decided to take the photo early, while her kids were still asleep. A steady rain and cool breeze thwarted our plans to frolic naked in her backyard. I walked through the house looking for a blank wall. The spot near the front door seemed perfect. I opened the big door to let in the morning light and moved a bench out of the way.

“Just take off your clothes and do some morning stretches,” I said. I stepped outside onto the front porch and knelt down on her front porch to peer through my camera. “This should work.”

She stripped off her clothes and stood in the doorway. A car rolled by slowly. It was a weekday morning, and her neighbors were going to work.

“Don’t worry,” I said. “Your neighbors are half-asleep. They won’t even notice.”

We’d been up late, talking. It was the first time we’d met in person, even though we’ve been friends online for years. We both turn fifty this year, and that means neither of us are shy when it comes to talking about the body. We discussed, for instance, the way many younger women feel pressured to shave their pubic hair, and we speculated as to whether or not that pressure comes from pornography.

We talked about the way our bodies have changed over time, the way our ideas have changed over time.

We compared geographic differences: we grow up on opposite sides of the country. I’ve often wondered how the landscape itself might impact the way we feel about our bodies. Would living in a warm climate predispose a person to feel more comfortable being naked? Certainly climate and landscape must in some ways impact social norms about nudity.

We’d left on the lights in the kitchen, our cups of tea still on the table. Behind me, rain splattered against the driveway, and I could hear tires humming as another car went past. My friend stretched this way and that, dancing in the morning light, while I snapped a few fast photos, both of us still talking the whole time.

(Readers who want to know the history of the naked photo tradition can check it out here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here. )