Highlights from [Baren] Exchange #68 (Part 3 of 4)

This the third of four posts highlighting prints from  Baren Forum's #68 Exchange. The theme was "Nudes", and the paper size was 8" x 8". The first post can be found here and the second can be found here. 

Third: nude beach humor 
Featuring Why Not? by Bridget Pilip Murphy (above) and Nudist Newbie by Therese Krupp (below.) 

Two prints in this exchange dealt with public nudity in a whimsical manner. Specifically, they both deal with the emotional charge felt in the initial moments after the subject (in both cases, a woman) has decided to enter an outdoor nudist space.

The first frames the naked torso of a perfectly proportioned venus as she enters a verdant beach setting, the grass speckled with little, cheery flowers. And though we only see her body below the shoulders, the title presumably puts us into her head. She is the one who has just removed her playful polka dot bikini in response to the sign that reads "Clothing Optional." As the title queries, indeed, with such a figure that could only draw admiring, lustful, or envious gazes, why not? 

The second print sort of does the opposite. Here we see only the subject's face, though from the title "Nudist Newbie" we can assume she is naked or about to be so. Instead of us looking at her body, we see in the mirror of her sunglasses that she is looking at other peoples' bodies, and literally biting her fingernail over her predicament.

It seems that the second print answers the question posed by the title of the first.