Viktor

"I was not very confident about my body when I was young because I was a bit fat.

Therefore I was a bit shy about, and ashamed of looking at my body in the mirror, let alone be naked in the public. So I joined my local gym to lose some weight and get some muscles. Although I didn’t feel the gym had helped me shape my body a lot, but it worked somehow. 

 

It was last year in December, I decided to attend the festival Naked in the Trees in New Zealand. Browsing their website, accidentally saw “The Human Gallery” in the event list. I was always wondering what my body looked like so it may be perfect opportunity to do so by becoming “part of the project”.  I was in the venue, seeing so many people with a great body figure, actually made me lose my confidence a bit. Then I walked into the tent and saw Katharina, who encouraged me to spend some time there to take a deep look into my body shape. Katharina was so chatty and friendly; we talked a lot about human bodies.

 

The conversation made me realize that:

We are all different, we all have different body figures, why don’t we simply just accept it.

 

I also looked at the albums in the tent. After seeing those images of different people and reading their stories, I believed it even more: we are all different, someone may be slim, someone may be chubby, and someone may be just like someone we come across every day. We may not be able to change how other people perceive our bodies, but we may try our best to make it more satisfactory.

 
After the session, I felt much better about myself, growing more confidence and making my experience at Naked in the Trees more memorable. Days after, when I looked at the photographs, I could see my body in different angles, getting to know my body in a different light.

 

The Human Gallery definitely helped me rethink about my body and give me a great opportunity to look at it, like in a “bird view”.