Zona Naturista

Zona Naturista by Laura Schleder:

For me, there was always a certain and unfading fascination for subcultures – from German middle-class workers, dressing up as 18th century cowboys, spending their entire leisure time in a fake wild west village in the back yard of a farm to a part-time dominatrix, paying their family‘s bills in unconventional ways. It was while having a coffee with a foot fetishist that I figured out that it‘s these contradictions that fascinate me the most about human behaviour.

Wearing a buttoned up shirt for 50 weeks then literally nothing but a pair of sandals for the rest of the year. And it was this very touristic approach to naturism that I shared with my parents till the end of my childhood which made me curious to have a second look at this phenomenon after years have passed. With Zona Naturista, I‘m re-visiting my own infant holiday destination.

After not having seen the village of Vera for 15 years, it was in June 2018 that I took the flight from Düsseldorf to Almeria again. The smell of sun tan creme and the hordes of medium-matured naked bodies seemed so strangely familiar to me. I had been here before, but it has changed. Just like its guests, the naturists club resorts seemed to have went through its second
adolescences already. There was no revolutionary spirit of the 60‘s and I couldn‘t sense any idealism of the early naturists at the turn of the 19th century (and I seriously doubt that one ever could).

Right here, being naked was merely a hedonistic end in itself. But it was naked among nudists that I met people who clearly proved that there was still more to it than simply avoiding tan lines. These naturists did not hesitate to sell all their belongings elsewhere and start all over in a foreign country, just for the sake of being naked all day. And it was in between this group of
naturists, seeking for their very personal definition of freedom and those fully commercialized all-inclusive nudists where I portrayed the protagonists of Zona Naturista.

Zona Naturista with a choice of 4 different covers is available direct from it’s author for 10 Euros (plus Porto 3,70 €)

Laura Schleder is one of the founders of the European model agency Fifteen Minutes.

Email: laura@fifteenminutes.agency
https://www.instagram.com/laura_schleder/

(German version)

Ich fahre nach Vera. Ein in Andalusien gelegener Badeort. Vor 15 Jahren bin ich hier schon mal gewesen, nackt unter Nackten, gemeinsam mit meinen Eltern. Der Ort ist seit Ende der 80er Jahre ein Hotspot der Freikorperkultur. Angekommen. Der Geruch von Sonnencreme und Selbstbräuner. Es hat sich viel geändert in Vera: Das Nudisten Clubhotel, in das ich einchecke, scheint genau wie seine Besucher seinen zweiten Frühling bereits hinter sich zu haben. Hier ist nichts mehr zu spüren vom revolutionären Geist der Nackten der 60er oder vom Idealismus der Naturalisten zum Wechsel des 19.

Jahrhunderts (wenn er denn jemals hier zu spüren war). Nacktsein hat hier lediglich einen hedonistischen Selbstzweck. Doch ich treffe auch Menschen in Vera, die mir beweisen wollen, dass Nacktsein mehr bedeutet, als das Versprechen auf einen
bräunungsstreifen-freien Korper. Und genau zwischen dieser Gruppe von Idealisten, die ihr Hab und Gut verkauft haben um nach Vera zu ziehen und dem durchkommerzialisiertem All-Inclusive- Nudismus, zwischen den Gated Communities der ganzjährlich Nackten und den Bars, Swingerclubs und Hotels der Touristen fotografiere ich die Protagonisten von Zona Naturista.