FLORIDA - 41 paying members of luxury nudist resort Caliente in Pasco county, Florida, are furious at being on the losing end of what they allege is a “bait and switch” perpetrated on them by the club’s management. The object of their collective lawsuit filed March 16 against the club are new lots within the resort which were originally offered to them at 50,000 $US, only to be told the price had now doubled. In retaliation, Caliente has threatened to rescind the membership of all those suing them. Not an inspiring naturist story!

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• Caliente Resort

SAN FRANCISCO - Professional photographer Jack Gescheidt started the “Tree Spirit Project” in 2003, shooting haunting pictures of naked people draped on majestic old growth trees. Recently he had a brainstorm: He proposed a joint project to an environmental group that was planning to stage a protest at Berkeley University in Hayward, California, to protect threatened ancient trees on campus grounds.

The result was a unique combination of art and eco-activism that drew the attention of the press around the world. Seventy-five nude persons, a mix of volunteer models and activists, participated, making it his biggest photo shoot ever, according to Gescheidt, whom we reached at his studio in San Francisco. Unlike Spencer Tunick, Gescheidt isn’t looking to cram hordes of nudes into his photos. While both shoot nudes, their central themes are completely different.
Gescheidt isn’t a nudist himself, but his models have to be nude, as his compositions focus on the natural (the trees), and his subjects are demonstrating their vulnerability through their nudity, he explained. “It just wouldn’t work if they wore clothes”, he emphasizes.
During the peaceful Berkeley protest, police warned him that he was risking arrest, but fortunately that didn’t materialize. The reason behind the protest was the University’s decision to cut down a stand of trees several hundred years old to make way for a new gymnasium. The institution claimed the old trees were unsafe and needed to be removed, which Gescheidt says is rather ironic as the seismically active Hayward Fault runs directly through the campus.
The shoot opened a completely new avenue for him, that of art as activism (or vice-versa), and is leading Gescheidt to consider repeating the experience elsewhere. The Spirit Tree Project contributes 25% of its after-tax profits to environmental groups, which is another reason why he persists in this endeavor. He said he doesn’t know when and where the next shoot will take place, but did promise to keep us posted!

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Related Links:

• Tree Spirit Project

TALLAHASSEE - Florida’s has seen quite a bit of activity lately in terms of the quantity of anti-naturist bills winding their way through the state’s legislature. Morley Schloss, the Naturist Action Committee’s board member representing nudists’ interests in Florida told Nudist Day that 2006 was a quiet year, with only one piece of legislation which was a serious threat to the lifestyle, while the first quarter of 2007 has already seen seven dangerous bills tabled.
Highest on Schloss’s agenda is Senate bill 2544, which seeks to treat a second conviction for “indecent exposure” as a felony. The problem for nudists lies in the bill’s definition of what constitutes indecent exposure, which could include mere nudity. The NAC is now calling upon Florida nudists to begin an intensive writing camping directed at the State Criminal Justice Committee, requesting that the bill’s language be modified where it concerns section 800.03 of the Florida Statute. Note that this bill is the Senate’s equivalent to House bill 41, which has already been passed. Should the Senate approve its version, the state Governor Charlie Crist must give it its final approval before it becomes law.
If that wasn’t enough, several other bills also attempt to strengthen the penalties of the same part of the criminal code, but again do a poor job in defining what constitutes lewdness. All of these bills imply that mere nudity is lewd, this in the state with the largest number of naturists.
Should any of these bills actually become law, the language used would entitle law enforcement to charge people with the infraction, Schloss explained, but not convict them. Thus, naturists could still be harassed and face the costs and obvious degradation of defending themselves. The NAC has a particularly strong ally in this battle, namely the South Florida Free Beaches Association and its professional lobbyist, Ray Maury, Schloss added.
_{This article was corrected after mr. Schloss found errors.}

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• Interview with Naturist Society
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Related Links:

• NAC web site
• South Florida Free Beaches Association

AMSTERDAM - Dream Amsterdam, an organization that promotes art outside museum walls, has hired Spencer Tunick for its annual art event June 3. Tunick will perform his usual routine of photographing huge numbers of naked volunteers in recognizable public places. The location of photo shoots is a closely guarded secret, only revealed to participants at the last minute. The deadline to register online as a participant for this photo shoot is May 25, 2007.
More details also became available for the installation slated for Mexico City. The date of the event is April 29th, 2007, and is being funded by the UNAM’s Museum of Arts and Sciences, the city government, as well as the Murietta foundation. The website set-up by the UNAM for the event (in Spanish) promises this will be Tunick’s most impressive installation to date.

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• Spencer Tunick’s next Installation: Mexico City

• Photographers of the Naked Masses

Related Links:

• Dream Amsterdam

• Mexico City Event (Spanish)

Clothing-optional cruises have been popular for several years, and now providers are branching-off into more specialized versions of this type of vacation. One fast-growing segment caters to well-heeled gay nudists. Source Events, in partnership with Gay Naturists International (GNI) are leaders in that end of the market . We called Craig Smith, president of Source Events in south Florida, to find-out a bit more about what they offer.

Their first gay naturist cruise sailed in 2004, Smith told us, and things have gone so well since then that this May the first ever Mediterranean nude gay cruise will depart from Italy. Each cruise accommodates anywhere from 70 to 150 passengers, who can be nude at all times except when dining or in the vicinity of a port of call. The mix on the almost always sold-out cruises is usually an even split between couples and singles, Smith says, and is a good way for single gay men to meet, his staff even organizing games and events onboard to facilitate mingling.
Guests’ ages typically range from 30 to 70, closely reflecting the demographics of any luxury nudist cruise. The minimum age allowed is 21. In case there was any doubt, gay naturist cruises also follow the same rules as any other nude cruise: no public sexual behavior is tolerated. The company also does not discriminate, thus heterosexuals and the opposite sex can and do occasionally participate, and some of the staff is female, Smith points-out.
Modern tall sailing ships are used, such as the Wind Star, which will carry guests during the Mediterranean trip from Rome to Athens with many stops in between, including several ports with nude beaches nearby.

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Related Links:

• Source Events

• GNI

Photo courtesy of Source Events. Copyright Source Events