Photographer Trevor Christensen Gets Naked

Photographer Trevor Christensen has a novel idea: he wants to put his photographic subjects at ease through nudity. His own nudity.

Christensen is currently photographing a series of portraits in which he, the photographer, is completely naked. The idea, he explains in his online artist statement, is to flip the balance of power between subject and photographer.

Image: Trevor Christensen | Instagram @trevorchristensen

As recounted by the Spectrum’s Lisa Larson, Christensen initially became aware of the camera’s ability to make someone uncomfortable when, as a precocious high school student, he was asked to photograph the school administration for the year book. Their immediate discomfort in front of the camera stayed with Christensen and became the seed from which his current project blossomed. (And to be clear, it’s only images of Christensen’s subjects, not of the photographer himself.)

It’s also gone viral. At the urging of some friends, Christensen posted a few of the photos from his nude sessions to the image aggregator Imgur.com. After that, it blew up, with postings on Buzzfeed and other media outlets. His Instagram followers, he told us, ballooned from 500 to 11,000 as word spread.

Now, Christensen is working to compile about 200 images in this series, which he hopes to turn into a gallery show and a book.

And in case you happen to be thinking that perhaps a little… over exposure… is just the thing you need to put your own portrait subjects at ease, think again. As Christened soon discovered, very few of his subjects are actually comforted by the experience. Instead, the project  has turned into an exploration of photographic vulnerability.

You can see the the images from Christensen’s nude series on his website or Instagram account.