Naturist photo sites. I’m not someone who was particularly interested in these types of website, but as this blog has developed I’ve found it’s something I’ve had to visit more often for the purposes of providing depictions of the RL naturist lifestyle.

Of course, I recently had a little rant at some of the people who produce them, for their misogyny and for their lack of understanding of the core values of naturism.

Some ‘naturist’ photo sites will be little more than soft, and sometimes hard core, porn that not only treat women disgracefully in the ways they describe them (bitches, whores, sluts), but also cause a ‘guilt by association’ link to genuine naturism by also creating the impression that sex is an integral part of naturism. Of course, sex is part of naturism, just as it is in every other aspect of lifestyle choice, but not in the way that it’s often depicted on some of these websites. And while some naturist destinations have altered their perspective to a degree, Cap D’Agde in France, or Hedonism in Jamaica, for example, to focus more on an exhibitionist or ‘swinging’ lifestyle, they’re not typical of naturism.

On the plus side, this need for research has led me to discover Vanessa B, an Australian model. I’ve been able to discover that she comes from northern New South Wales in Australia and is photographed by her husband Richard. She has done sets in various locations including some splendid landscapes, beaches and indoors. She says she enjoys walking, gardening, surfing, nude beaches and sunbathing, while she’s quoted elsewhere by saying ‘Richard is my husband and photographer. We live in northern NSW, Australia. I’m 49 and have been posting on various sites for about seven years now. Photography is one of our main hobbies, with an emphasis on erotic photography’.

What I’m particularly drawn to is that not only is she a ‘mature’ (does 49 even qualify as ‘mature’?) lady, looking absolutely gorgeous and content with her own nudity, thus representing a terrific role model to women of a similar age, her photos are uniformly naturist or glamour in depiction. There’s never a point where she needs to be graphic in her photos, never a point where she’s explicit. These are just top quality photos by her very talented husband, superbly showing off his beautiful wife and the beauty of the naturist lifestyle. Even her ‘glamour’ shots have a superior sense of style and eroticism about them. There is never a shot where she’s depicted as being cheap or sordid. She’s simply a beautiful woman, beautifully photographed, in beautiful surroundings. Both Vanessa B and Richard are inspirations.

Her photos are, equally, a superb advertisement for the naturist lifestyle.

I also feel the need to pay tribute to her photographer and husband Richard. Until our own photographer, Harry, fell ill, I used to leave the research of SLN’s photography to him, and if you check the back pages you’ll find where Harry has done posts of ‘SL replicating RL’. I often wondered, but never questioned, what the inspiration behind these types of post were. Since I’ve had to take up some of the mantle of sourcing RL photographic material for the blog, it has sort of sneaked up on me that it has been Richard’s photos of Vanessa B, the imaginative, beautifully constructed images, that have been a recurring source of inspiration, to me, to ask our own photographer, Diane, if she could possibly do a shot like this…or that… Looking back through previous posts, without realising it until the last day or two, that it’s Richard’s work that have been the photos used as inspiration for work on this site.

Ella