The joy of being naked

There's a certain freedom in being naked that you won't find anywhere else. I think it's a process of detachment. My best friend one day had a project for her photography class and she decided to do nudes. We were 5 people that only took off our clothes off to shower or to have sex. When the time came to take our clothes off everyone started looking at each other wondering who will be the first one. At the beginning it was weird. Then we didn't care. Then we had a great photo session. We felt so comfortable with each other and so free to do whatever we wanted. I don't know where those pictures are right now.. my mom probably found them in my house and thought I was crazy and threw them away.

Anyway.. all these amazing pictures are from this great photographer called Ryan Mcginley, an american photographer living in NY which started his photography career at the age of 25. I love the big scenarios and the careless / i don' give a fuck vibe he captures. Makes me want to take all my clothes off and run run run. And then 5 minutes later I would get arrested.

"If you see somebody running down the street naked every single day, you stop looking up."
–– Stevie Nicks

HOME IS WHERE YOU ARE

I come from a place where hitchhiking or trainhopping doesn't exist. I even learned the "hitchhiking" term last year. It has always been seen to me as something they do on films and stuff like that, until last year. We went on a roadtrip from Oregon to Arizona and it was the first time we experienced this amazing culture. We didn't know how to react to it since where I come from you could get easily killed picking up a stranger in the middle of the road. Here seems to be a very natural thing to do. I felt a desire to do it as well and experience total freedom, just leaving all the material shit behind and survive, eat, sleep, think, write, shoot, move, learn, LIVE. It seems weird but I always liked the idea of the zombie apocalypse and just surviving. I guess I'm being too extreme and a zombie attack is not necessary to live on the road.

When I read The Dharma Bums it just intensified that desire (except for eating so much canned food) but it made me think that it was only something possible to do back in the day. Specially if you're a girl, it seemed to me a very scary move. But looking at this amazing series of pictures by Mike Brodie made me realize it is still a very possible thing to do, but not by myself. Mike, with a polaroid camera, spent 4 years on the roads of US with this group of youngsters documenting his and their explorations making of this experience a true collection of American travel photography. Although he has stopped making photographs, the body of work he made in four short intense years has left an enduring impact on the photo world. I truly admire and have a deep respect for these people and I'm very thankful that Mike Brodie documented this. I think this guy has made history.

Make sure to check out the entire collection (which I almost put everything here) on his website.

⥤⥤ Adios Nueva York ⥢⥢

For the next couple of weeks I'm going to live on the road. We'll be going from Portland to Arizona, living in a tent, reading books, eating from the grill, diners, taco trucks, fruits, listening to music, taking pictures, enjoying my lover's company, living in nature, breathing freedom. Still haven't decided yet what to bring for sure, my cowboy boots or dr martens? Don't want to think about that yet! And of course, see what treasures I can find along the way for the lil' shop.