I was thinking recently about the 60s, and how the whole counterculture of the period involved quite a bit of nudity and certainly toplessness, which would have been exceptionally daring for the time.

Think of the sleeve to Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland. (this is the UK cover, deemed too risqué for the American market).

Or the only Blind Faith album.

Think of Hendrix promo shots.

John and Yoko.

A peek of Jane Birkin‘s pubic hair in the film ‘Blow Up‘, the first time it had been seen in a mainstream British film, I believe.

Or Birkin, again, on the cover of Serge Gainsbourg‘s ‘Je T Aime’ record.

 

At the time all of this was ‘edgy’.

Away from rock culture nudity was becoming more mainstream in general as the hippies lost their clothes quite readily.

Woodstock.

I like taking photographs of attractive naked avatars for SLN2,  and I also enjoy the idea of photo-essays with that crossover between SL & RL, and it was something I gave a lot of thought to during my recent illness.

While I spend a lot of time in SL naked at naked locations, I also like to take note of certain outfits that I feel can be utilised into such photo-essays. I’ve got a few planned and they form the basis of my SL these days, trying to imagine a certain back story which can be re-told within the context of SL.

The 60s and 70s were also an era when bands would ‘try to get their heads together in the country’ or they would seek something more spiritually and take off to India or Marrakech.

On that basis, imagine it’s the turn of the 60s, and rock star ‘John Smith’ (an ‘everyman‘ kind of name). Having had the adulation with his beat group and the psychedelic era, John now finds himself at a musical and personal crossroads. He sets off for some unidentified location in north Africa perhaps, or the Middle East (at a time when the Middle East wasn’t quite so incendiary as it is now).

John conceives his rock opera, ‘Eden’, about a return to the innocence of the garden, a place where everyone is naked and expanding their minds on naturally growing hallucinogenics.

Musicals and stage shows like Hair & Oh! Calcutta included much nudity

Which is what my first photo-essay will be about…a fading rock star ‘getting his head together in the country’ (or someone else’s country), writing a naked rock opera and a back story to go along with it.

Harry