Embracing My Nakedness by Hellen Masido

My second nude photoshoot wasn’t nearly as terrifying as the first. A friend who wants some of hers taken accompanied me- to get a feel of it- so maybe I was in the mentor mode and shit; but for the first time ever, I didn’t mind what shape my breast took. And they do take on a weird shape when I’m not looking. One moment they’re a small and perky just the way I love them and the next you check, they look like small but long pawpaws. It’s traumatizing!

This time, I wasn’t so hot on what themes we’ll cover or what message to get across. I just wanted to be naked as some sort of catharsis. Barely out of a depressive spell, I needed to be part of something that would kill the dead feeling I had inside. Nude photography will make you feel anything but dead-that’s a fact- so when the photographer sent me a mood board of play of the human body on light and shadow- as well as some on lingerie and the female form, I was sold!

I will post more photos from the shoot once they’re ready. I’m excited to see how they look!

Next, before a shoot that will need my yoga bod, I’m looking forward to one that will involve abstract forms the body takes, before yoga takes away the extra flab around my tummy and other areas of my body. I’d love to remember this body before yoga molds it.

Yoga in the Nude is a project I’ve been hell bent on achieving since the beginning of this year and after shooting a film next month, I’ll probably begin a more consistent yoga workout towards that. Consistency is not one of my strong suits but I’d like to change that alongside many other things about myself and my thinking patterns.

I look forward to the things I will learn doing yoga for that particular shoot: being naked- all shades of me and bending myself in ways I never thought possible- and teaching myself that in the absence of everything that I believe keeps me going, I have myself; and as I am, I can find solutions and create my own happy place.

I also look forward to having conversations around the photos I’ll take too because nudity, even though I am embracing my own, seems such a controversial issue for reasons I am not really sure about. Reason i plan to discover as i go by.