Send Nudes: behind the scenes of a daunting photoshoot

Send Nudes is available now - find it here.

Send Nudes is my new zine - part of my Things Men Have Said To Me Instead Of Hello collection.

In line with my desire for all of my marketing to be more art, for the promotional photoshoot I made the complicated decision to pose nude.

In this video I'm taking you behind the scenes of that shoot - the process, the decisions, the moment we had to completely rethink one of the images, and the conversations between me and my (amazing photographer) husband Lars as we worked it all out in real time.

I also share some of my reflections and reasoning for doing this project, and of course, show off the gorgeous zine!

What does it mean to deliberately put your 45-year-old body into the world when culture has decided women your age should be fading quietly into the background? What's the difference between being looked at and choosing to be seen? What does it mean to be visible?

🎶 All music by the incredible Caspar Riis: https://soundcloud.com/caspar-riis. Used with permission.

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Send Nudes: On Naked Photos, Older Women, and Reclaiming Your Body

Wait, Am I Mad?

I'm back in the studio now, a few days later, and I've been reflecting on the whole experience. I've just been editing the part of the video you've already seen, and it brings up a lot of stuff — like, a lot of stuff about being an older woman, being past my fuckable age, and what the hell I think I'm doing putting naked photos of myself on the internet. A video about naked photos of myself on YouTube. Is that... am I just mad?

When I first had the idea, there was very much this kind of "oh crap, that's a thing I'm going to do, isn't it?" feeling.

The Thing That Made Me Do It

One of the things that really prompted me was speaking to a young friend of mine who's in her early thirties. To be honest, she's one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen — stunning, captivating, witty, intelligent. I've seen whole rooms eating out of her hands.

And hearing her say that she didn't like the way she looked, that everywhere she looked she was thinking about getting plastic surgery, because everything she sees on the internet is filled and tucked and primped... I thought, we have so few representations of older women out there. Older women who are comfortable with their bodies, who are doing their own thing, who are willing to show themselves off.

There's this cultural trope that as we get older, women become invisible. And in a certain respect that's true — but if I'm going to be invisible, I want to be invisible on my own terms. And if I can make art about that, then the more the better.

Why It Fits So Perfectly

It also fits in so beautifully with my latest collection, Things Men Have Said To Me Instead Of Hello — [there's a link in the description if you want to find out more, and I'll be making a video about the collection and the exhibition happening in early 2026].

This shoot fitted in with that collection particularly because of this.

This is Send Nudes. It's got a short introduction about reclaiming nudity — bodies being valuable beyond their utility and fuckability — and then it's these colourful, almost abstracted nude paintings. And a cat, because, well, you're clever, you don't need me to spell that out for you.

It's this gorgeous, little, brightly coloured, lovely thing — designed to be a reclamation of nudity for women, old and young, gay, straight, whatever, anything in between. Anyone with a female body, basically. Reclaiming it from the patriarchal gaze.

The Photographs

We ended up with four shots altogether, most of which you saw us trying to get in the video. The first one was my original vision for the whole shoot — it's referencing a famous photograph by Man Ray, one of my artistic heroes. He's inspired me so much over the years. It's his photo of Kiki de Montparnasse holding an African mask, and I think it's just the most beautiful image.

The colour grade on the photos and everything — I think it turned out absolutely beautifully. Lars got my vision and we created something really special.

All four images came out beautifully. If you'd like to see them in more detail, or if you'd like to buy a copy of the zine for yourself, the link is in the description. You can have a look at the photographs, have a look at more of the zine, and if you like it, it's available for purchase — shipped anywhere in the world, no tariffs, made to order and printed in whatever country you're in.

Why Any Of This Matters

I hope this has been interesting to watch — a creative collaboration playing out almost in real time. And I hope it's also inspired you to not hate your body quite so much, if that's a thing you struggle with, and to think about bodies in a different way. I don't know, maybe that's a bit lofty. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the video.

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