Photography byJames August

I think she and I have a healthy and affectionate relationship. One of the amazing things about living in Northern California is that there is an entire culture around casual nudity, particularly within queer communities.

When I moved here a few years back, I had already developed a preference for swimming and hiking nude, but since arriving in San Francisco I’ve had many more like-minded friends and many more opportunities to be nude in social situations, both sexualized and not. Now when I travel, I’m always on the lookout for beaches or trails where I can experience other regions in a natural state.

I began shooting people in earnest about a decade ago when I was living in New York. I live with a neurological condition that can sometimes make it exhausting to connect with people by speaking or writing, no matter how much I long for that connection. I found that photographing people was a way to connect deeply with others in a way that wasn’t rooted in language.

I began shooting my friends at first, and then their friends, and then eventually people with whom I had no direct connection but who had come across my work. I meet and learn about some truly incredible folks through doing this work.

I’ve had a few long-term themed projects, largely focused on exploring the intersections of queerness and class identity. Mostly, though, I like to shoot people with no aim in mind, no theme, no agenda. Just faces betraying emotions, bodies betraying light. I’m just there to catalyze people’s expressiveness, to help them feel comfortable so that they reveal themselves.

As a rule I only shoot folks who ask me to shoot them, unless they’re already friends or have made it clear they would like to be photographed. Just as a matter of principle I don’t want to be looking at people and deciding that some I want to photograph and others I don’t; I’m sure I have subtle biases like most people and don’t want that to be perpetuated in my work.

I’d also rather shoot people who want to be photographed, and by me in particular. Hopefully they see something they can connect with in my work that maybe I don’t even see myself.

Man, it was pretty wild. First, I have to say that I love the concept and the principles that it represents: community, respect for queer culture, respect for bodies and all varieties of bodies, artistic creation as a communal act. It’s remarkable to witness and be a part of a project like that.

At the same time, it was basically the opposite of how I normally work, which is one-on-one (maybe two-on-one), with each of us totally focused on the other (or at least on my camera). This really pushed me to put some perspective and context around how I normally work and think about other ways to create collaboratively.