Archivos del blog - MARISA PAPEN

It's festival season

6/30/2019

I'm not really a festival person but I do have some deep memories of Burning Man 2016. Just sharing and remembering a few snapshots + wondering if anyone knows of a festival a bit less popular but with the same vibration and energy?
Share your secrets!

Gender & Sexuality - Playboy Summer issue

6/19/2019

In the United States, same-gender sexuality has become more acceptable in the past two decades, and the number of people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual is increasing as well for this reason. But in most areas of the world, sexual minorities are discriminated, yes still today. For example: ‘A 2014 Ugandan law, called the "kill the gays bill" by some, attempted to punish same-sex relations with life imprisonment or even the death penalty. The law was later found to be invalid, but it resulted in a huge surge of violence against LGBTQ people, including the murder of a prominent activist’
Nudity & Gender & sexuality
As you might know by now, nudity to me doesn’t have to be sexual at all. And I guess you can feel this in the images from this shoot too. I am proud to have been a part of this universal message, to have had the chance to break all those simulated thought methods at once for a magazine as Playboy felt empowering. And above that, the entire experience, the shoot itself, was something I’ll always remember, holding your breath underwater with strangers and then synchronize and dance together. It felt like we were healing each other and the entire pool turned into a spiritual bath.

Some words from Ed for Playboy:
“I think there’s an advantage to my being gay in that I don’t want my female nudes to be sex objects,” he tells me. “I want them to be about grace and movement.” He welcomes seven models—five women and two men—to the pool area.
The models move and behave as though they inhabit this slice of suburbia full-time, and as though a crew of strang- ers aren’t watching them. One scarlet-maned woman repeatedly and patiently glides and jumps into the pool at Freeman’s direction.
She stops swimming only to listen for the next instruction, unfazed by a topless peer practicing sun salutations on the other side of the yard.
Although Freeman has convinced the men to be part of this PLAYBOY cover shoot, he offers them no guarantee they’ll make the final cut. “But,” he tells me, “if I have anything to say about it, they will.” Toward the end of the day, all seven models are told to sub- merge themselves and cradle one another. “I want to express freedom within this notion of gender identity in the culture, which is very much about an upward and outward movement,” explains Freeman. “So this is not going to be pictures with peo- ple diving downward.” Freeman instructs them to point and arch their collective ex- tremities. Simultaneously, they all look up at the fading sunlight. The shutter clicks. “A lot of people tell me, ‘This reminds me of Renaissance paintings,’” he says. “That’s probably because those paintings were of gorgeous bodies. They weren’t sexually interacting; it was just about the beauty of the human form—and that’s really what I’m about.”

Photography and vision by Ed Freeman
Some more words of myself in the short video below.

On my Island. All the time. In my Mind

6/3/2019

Part of an interview, questioned by AparTV for Discover Magazine a few years ago (2017 I think). For some reason, in a way it fits the images I guess, since I’m currently sort of looking for a place to maybe settle down...? Maybe! Suggestions welcome!
I’m doubting Mexico or Greece… or...

You consider your world to be an island of its own, a sort of microcontinent without borders where liberty is revered as the only god. What advice would you give to a new generation that would like to follow in your footsteps?
I’m not a good acceptor of advice, so I rarely give any either.
The only thing I know is that the ‘back to basics-philosophy’ is what holds true happiness for me. A fire, the Ocean, walking with my feet on the rocks or in the soft sand, plucking a ripe mango from the tree and enjoying its sweet meat.
Life is pretty simple, people tend to make it way too complex.
You have always chosen to go against the tide of what should be shown, by adopting a “no clothes” philosophy of life. Can you explain to us the thought process that led you to live naked for the greater pleasure of many and the intense embarrassment of others?
It’s rather the lack of a thought-process that brought me here.
From the moment I started to create my own culture or my so called Island-way-of-life, it became visibly obvious that clothes or materialism were not going to be a big part of it.
In actual fact you are never naked, you live in what we would define as “an absence of clothing”, however one question remains, in today’s world is it possible to show oneself truly without being naked?
For me being without clothes means being free and being as close with nature as I possibly can. It makes me happy.
If , for you, being dressed up from head to toe means showing your true self, then go for that.
I think the world would be a much brighter place if everyone would dress or undress themselves without restrictions and without being bothered with what other people may think or say.
When a woman as beautiful as you appears without clothing, people tend to forget her face, but in your case the reverse is true. How do you explain that?
What is beautiful..?
I can only speak from my own point of view and whenever I think a person looks/acts interesting/beautiful I think it’s the spirit we perceive, not the physical structure that it enfolds.
You have just shaved your head. That is a powerful gesture, full of symbolism. What made you decide to take that step, to pick up the clippers one morning and to say to yourself “OK, it’s now or never”?
When somebody would have asked me a couple of years ago if I’d consider shaving my head, I’d have given you a ‘Hell No’ , straight up.
Maybe because I wasn’t secure enough back then, maybe I though my hair was semi-defining who I was. But honestly, it’s just hair and it has the magnificent power to grow back... So when my trip to Ethiopia was getting closer, I figured the only way I’d be able to somehow blend in with the Surma-tribe was taking away all the tracks of Westernization.
Right after it was done, I went into the shower to rinse of all the hair that was sticking to my body, Feeling the water on your scalp is such an incredible feeling.
Returning to a lighter topic, last year just as you were voted “the most beautiful woman” on Instagram by web-surfers, you were banished from social media because of photos that were considered too explicit. How did that situation affect you and what did it teach you about today’s society?
At first I was almost angry. I couldn’t accept it. Why would people think the human body is offensive in any way?
Why are weapons and racism and hate allowed and is a nipple or a beautiful bush-full seen as dangerous and something our kids shouldn’t be exposed too?
I mean, vaginas and penises are life.
Or did we really all get delivered by storks?
You were in St Barth not long ago. Can you tell us what you thought of your stay? How do you see the future of this old pirate island?
St Barth is absolutely gorgeous but, and don’t get me wrong - some parts of the Island are just a fraction too fancy and perfect. I did adore the wild sides of the Island though.
And future-wise... This counts for the entire Earth, not only St-Barth,
as long as the human impact will stay as limited as possible I think everything , for the next few hundred years at least, will be fine :)
After the photo shoot on St Barth, you tried a different photographic experience in Jamaica. How do you transition so easily from one world to another?
When you live in your own World, it’s super easy to flow from one place to another. Nature and people vary but I don’t see such a big difference.
You have a great section on your website where you post everything that is censored by Instagram. Is that the most visited section?
I don’t really keep track of those things. I just share what I feel like sharing and that’s it:)
Finally, if you were going to stay on a deserted island, what would you pack?
Which island would you choose? Although I’ve visited so many incredible places, I haven’t found home yet. I’d love to live in a community with like-minded souls - a place without prejudice and where everyone agrees nature is the highest power.
Packing-wise, probably my goggles, my cat and my camera.

More images of this series on Patreon!

Marisa Papen