As part of Britain Uncovered’s five year anniversary celebrations, we’re taking a trip down memory lane and looking back at our website’s first ever body positivity photoshoot – which took place at the Belt Craft Studios in London just weeks after our website went live in the summer of 2020. As part of this retrospective, we're also presenting a selection of exclusive, never-before-seen images from across this special day.
Several weeks after posting our initial series of interviews back in 2020, it became abundantly clear that hosting our very own body positivity photoshoots was going to be an critically important part of our project – and in addition to these early Q&As, it seemed like a step in the right direction to be able to portray our vision of how social nudity experiences can be beneficial with a selection of our own exclusive images that demonstrate exactly this.
Getting any project off the ground can be a daunting proposition – especially when the site, at the time, was still very new and had very little content posted – but fortunately we found two fantastic individuals who were willing to take the leap of faith, and just several weeks later (and in the midst of a lockdown, no less), we found ourselves at the Belt Craft Studios in North London, ready for our first ever photo session.
Those of you familiar with the site will likely be aware of the aims and objectives our website seeks to promote – normalising the body, desexualising the human form and promoting the benefits of social nudity, to name a few – and a body positivity photoshoot to officially launch our project, with an exclusive series of images to highlight the site’s aims, and to express how natural, joyful and empowering these types of nudity experiences can be, seemed to be the perfect way to get Britain Uncovered up and running.
The first person to sign up for our shoot was Melissa, a hugely talented actress we had the pleasure of seeing performing on stage several years prior. Ahead of her involvement in our shoot, Melissa had mentioned to us that body positivity was a subject she was particularly interested in – not only from her own experiences, but from those of her surrounding family.
When we spoke to Melissa about her perspectives on body image, she revealed, “My relationship with my body has been a really difficult one. Yes, I’ve massively struggled with confidence about things like my weight – is my belly too big, are my legs too lumpy, and why does the skin around my arms flap so loosely – but I think the thing that I’ve struggled with the most here is allowing myself to like my breasts, which I have grown up hating.”
In addition to sharing these details about the body issues she faced growing up, Melissa also explained that poking fun at herself, in relation to her body image, had inadvertently had a negative effect. Melissa explained, “I rip on my body image a lot – and I allow or sometimes encourage people around me to do the same. In my mind I guess it adds to my sarcastic and tough exterior. A couple of years ago I lost some weight quite quickly and (due to my newfound confidence) a culture of fat shaming myself materialised – genuinely because I believed I didn’t have anything to worry about anymore. Of course, I eventually put that weight back on, and this poking fun at my weight continued. It’s unhealthy, and it really does affect me in those times when I’m feeling less confident about myself.”
With her unique experiences and perspectives, Melissa was undoubtedly an ideal candidate for this first shoot of ours – and having never previously taken part in a photoshoot of this nature, nor having experienced social nudity in this type of environment before, we felt as though her natural and organic reactions to the journey of the day would serve as a true testament as to how individuals might feel when dabbling with social nudity for the first time – and it was an absolute honour having her on-board!
Then, in an incredibly fortunate turn of events, just a week before our shoot was due to take place we were able to enlist the services of Elizabeth, an aspiring body positivity model who had just stepped in front of the camera for the very first time earlier the same year. Due to the fact that Britain Uncovered is seeking to promote the joys of social nudity experiences to regular, everyday people – in an effort to prove that this can be accessible and valuable to absolutely everyone – getting to shoot with two models who didn’t actually have a huge history of indulging in these types of experiences worked in our favour and felt like the very best starting point imaginable. With everything all mapped out, we were excited to see how the day would unfold, the reactions it would bring, and the feelings it would evoke!
The day prior to the shoot was spent dashing around London, frantically assembling as many props as we could possibly think of (including the heart-shaped balloons, confetti and bubbles that appear in many of our final images), and we made our way up to the studios via Seven Sisters tube station and over to the greatly heralded Belt Craft Studios shortly ahead of our 9am start time. The venue had previously hosted luminaries such as the Stereophonics, Harry Kane and Mesut Ozil, so working in such a highly-regarded studio frequented by the stars certainly wasn’t something we were taking lightly. And, truth be told, were it not for the lockdown and presumably a dearth of studio bookings up and down the country, the venue would likely have been well out of our price range at this stage in Britain Uncovered's history too.
The first model to arrive on the day, as planned, was Elizabeth, and after taking hold of the keys, we wasted no time getting started! We had intentionally avoided planning too much ahead of time, as we wanted to bring a sense of spontaneity to proceedings and capture candidly for the most part – and this formula proved such a success on the day that it’s ended up serving as the blueprint for Britain Uncovered photoshoots ever since. As we’ve referenced in the past, posed images can oftentimes end up feeling unnatural, or even suggestive, but creating candid images and essentially documenting whatever happens to be taking place is absolutely the right approach for us, and really does portray the sense of joy and freedom that we’re striving to promote.
Elizabeth and I initially started off indoors, exploring the venue and stopping for photos as we worked our way around the studio's various themed areas, and during this time Elizabeth also went through a series of costume changes as we played around to see what worked best, along with what felt right for the tone of our shoot.
In another fortunate turn of events, we discovered that due to the fact the other portion of the studios were unoccupied on the day of our visit, we essentially had exclusive access to our own private outdoor garden area! Despite shooting on an autumnal day in mid-October, it was just about warm enough to head outside and brave the elements, and just 15 minutes after we’d made a start inside, we decided to leave the safe, warm confines of the studios to venture into the great outdoors!
Having our own private slice of the capital to play around in certainly wasn’t what we had anticipated heading into the day; but, to my surprise, it was actually during this portion of the shoot that I felt we truly found our groove – and the outdoor space and natural light undoubtedly added the level of rawness and authenticity we were striving for.
Shortly after heading out, Elizabeth felt at ease and decided to pose naked atop a bench we had discovered, and the resulting images definitely convey a sense of calm, ease, and the sight of normal, nonchalant nudity in a totally desexualised manner – proving that it doesn’t have to be a big deal or controversial in any way – which is exactly what we were seeking to achieve.
After an hour or so of shooting, we were then joined by Melissa shortly after 10am. Although the original plan had been to conduct a series of solo shoots and to keep the models separated, it quickly became evident that due to her energy and infectious enthusiasm, Elizabeth sticking around for the remainder of the shoot was absolutely the best step forward for everyone involved, so the duo agreed to an impromptu shoot together and emerged from the green room ready for part two of our shoot!
We once again experimented with the vast amount of quirky props we happened to find laying around the studio floors and closets – which ultimately led to the somewhat surreal sight of Elizabeth riding around the studio on a bicycle, still completely naked! – and it wasn’t long until we brought out the confetti and created the most celebratory and party-like vibe we could have possibly conjured up.
Just short of one hour into the second half of our shoot, Melissa headed down to the opposite end of the room to retrieve a prop, and during her impromptu stroll, commented: “I keep forgetting that I’m naked!” Although a seemingly innocuous or insignificant comment at the time, to us it further demonstrated just how quickly and at ease people can become while participating in social nudity experiences.
We've heard this type of sentiment repeated back to us so many times during our various interviews and photoshoots that have followed in the years since; cementing our belief that although disrobing to begin with may seem foreign or out of our comfort zones to start with, it honestly doesn’t take long for us to acclimatise to being naked around others – and we can feel blasé, relaxed and comfortable within our own skin in no time at all.
We once again headed back outside to make the most of the space available to us, and with bubbles (from our bubble wands) floating across the North London skies, the duo bonded and seemed completely relaxed and at ease – as if they’d known each other their entire lives, in many ways – and we ended up with some really fantastic images that are right up there with Britain Uncovered’s finest captures to date.
We’ll let the images speak for themselves, but this was such a positive, uplifting and empowering atmosphere, and both Melissa and Elizabeth – who, again, had very limited experience being naked in social situations in general, let alone naked in front of a camera – were absolute fantastic, and really brought the day to life in ways that we couldn’t have imagined or anticipated.
Once back inside and beginning to warm up, our models for the day headed back inside the green room to relax and refresh themselves ahead of the final part of the shoot indoors – but, notably, and unlike the start of the day, both Melissa and Elizabeth were now both comfortable remaining completely naked throughout this 20-minute interlude, and they both seemed incredibly natural and at ease. We had the privilege of being allowed access into the green room to photograph these liberating and empowering moments, and ended up with some really excellent captures of both models applying some final touches in the mirrors before heading back out for a final round of photos. The day had gone spectacularly well, and it was a truly amazing project to have been a part of.
In the days following our shoot, and upon asking Melissa how she had felt heading into the shoot during our special interview, the London-based actress told us, “I was terrified, to be completely honest! However, it was an absolutely amazing experience to be working with Elizabeth, the other model”.
Elizabeth, meanwhile, told us during our subsequent interview 18 months on from the shoot, “If we were both just going to be there and be really uncomfortable… that wasn’t really what it was about. So I thought, “Let’s just go into this, remove all the pressure and just enjoy it and have a good time”, and that’s what I did. And I think in hindsight that probably helped Melissa also, because if she was feeling a little nervous or sceptical, that probably helped her drop her boundaries, and we ended up getting some really good and some really fun photos from it.”
Elizabeth continued, “There’s no pressure with shoots like these, and the important thing is just to enjoy them, because that’s the main thing and you tend to relax a lot more. That’s what it’s there for. You’re meant to enjoy it and come away feeling good, and it’s there for a positive intention.
Five years on, it has become increasingly clear that this launch shoot set the tone perfectly for everything that has since followed on Britain Uncovered, and our heartfelt thanks go out to Melissa and Elizabeth for not only helping to get our website up and running, but for being such fantastic participants and body confidence advocates in the process. Despite all the photoshoots we’ve had the pleasure of conducting since, this day will always have a special place in our hearts, and it was undoubtedly one of the most celebratory days of bodies and body confidence we’ve ever been a part of.
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See our slideshow above for a final selection of images from our day in London.
Britain Uncovered’s first ever body positivity photoshoot took place at the Belt Craft Studios in London on October 10, 2020. Additional highlights from the day, along with our immediate thoughts and reactions back at the time, can be found in our archives by clicking here.