There is really hardly a club that does not yet have a nude calendar from its members on offer. As far as sales strategy is concerned, exhibitionism and voyeurism offer an interesting intersection here. The proceeds are used to finance either the next club party or, for example, the reintroduction of the salamander, there are many possibilities. And so it’s no wonder that from southern German young farmers to northern German veterinary students to the residents of the district of Mönchengladbach-Schelsen, a lot of uncovered food is again being offered for the definitely happy year 2023.
A nude calendar is now also available with the residents of the Spanish hamlet of Peña de Zafra de Abajo, which is interesting given that this hamlet west of Alicante has only 16 residents. At weekends and in the summer the number sometimes rises to 25, but that’s about it. This is a rather deserted, one could say godforsaken area.
In order to put twelve months on paper, almost everyone who lives here had to undress. Willingness was high. Even the hundred-year-old Pedro Sánchez let two photographers take his picture in his house with a leather bottle in front of the fireplace. But only bare-chested. When you’re older, you don’t have to overdo it, he said.
The project is credited to nudist photographers Juanjo Ramírez López and David Cantó Navarrete, who went by the name Juanjoydavid, which can either be read as “Juanjo y David,” or “Juan Joy David,” which sounds a lot better . The men, both in their early 30s and not only a professional couple for ten years, also like to take pictures of themselves without anything, which you can see on their photo studio’s website.
For an exhibition, Juanjo and David had previously photographed around 100 people from their home region of Murcia, naked of course, otherwise the 1,500 visitors would not have come and would have paid three euros for the show. The idea came up during the pandemic, they say, in a country house near Abanilla where they had sought refuge for fear of the virus. Apparently, the other residents in the area had also accumulated a lot during that time, in any case, many soon dropped their covers to lounge in front of Juanjo’s and David’s lenses, for example on their tractor. A breast amputee also took part, a car mechanic and many, many more, the two report. The proceeds then went to a cancer project and an animal protection association.
There, two residents of the hamlet came into contact with Juanjo and David and invited them to their settlement on the edge of the Sierra de la Pila Regional Park, because on the one hand there are beautiful houses and marble quarries there, but on the other hand there has been a certain rural exodus in recent years came, which had a negative impact on the village treasury.
So Juanjo and David put the teacher Leyla on the desk of an old school building, the winemaker Lucía Nicolás Perea on an oak barrel, the farmer Juanjo with his most beautiful pumpkins and the hundred-year-old Pedro Sánchez, who was on fire. At least if you let him wear his pants.
Now the village treasury is full again. More than 500 calendars have already been sold, for nine euros each. Since the photographic masterpiece can not only be purchased in the local supermarket and some restaurants, but also via the Internet, according to the photographers, the first copies have already landed in France, England, California, Malta and Australia. Now one hopes for the German market.
In the coming year, those hamlet residents who last stayed dressed would certainly take part, Juanjo and David assure them and finally explain: “Let’s not have any complexes, all bodies are beautiful!” For real?