Nature and nakedness are thrust together in photos all the time, but not all photographers manage to capture the beauty of both the earth and the body in a way that’s actually meaningful.
Some of the shots in Matteo Bertolio’s latest series for Bambi Magazine are the kind of beautiful nudes where the feeling is one of freedom, glorious seclusion, basking in nature’s cool mountain breezes and gentle drops of sunlight. Lines and curves of the body mirror the lines and curves of the landscape. Beauty is in both the skin and the rocks.
Then we see the model curled up in the hollow of a seat carved out by nature, as if being cradled by the open palm of a stone giant.
And it’s a reminder that, while nature can be threatening and next to it we’re nothing but tiny specks, it can also be forgiving. “Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet,” wrote Khalil Gibran, “and the winds long to play with your hair”. It’s easily forgotten until you’re far away from the city smoke: we may love nature, but nature also wants to love us back.
View the full series of Matteo Bertolio’s nude portraits by clicking on the gallery. For this and more of Bambi issue 13, head to bambimagazine.com.
