You Think You're Cold?

You Think You're Cold?

Consider being naked in Antarctica.  The first 4 photos were taken in 1958 at the Little America base, which was on the Ross Ice Shelf on the coast of Antarctica.  Not at the South Pole, but still pretty cold, although when the photos were taken (our winter, their summer) it was a balmy -20 degrees Celsius (-4 degrees Fahrenheit).

First we see a scientist emerging from a sauna through a trapdoor.  The entire Little America base was built beneath the surface of the ice to protect it from the Antarctic weather.

He is joined by five other scientists cooling down from the sauna by lying on the ice.  They were later treated for frostbite.  Hopefully not on their you-know-what.

This photo's caption said the guy is expressing joie de vivre at surviving this endurance test.

Another base member appears, more suitably dressed for -4 degrees, presumably to herd them back inside.  The Little America base was abandoned the following year, and a few years later, because it was on the ice shelf, it broke off and floated out to sea as part of an iceberg.

Now the main American research base on the coast of Antarctica is McMurdo Station.  But there seem to be unashamed men everywhere.

The Amundsen-Scott station at the South Pole has its own traditions.  One is the 300 Club.  In order to join, you have to wait until the temperature outside goes down to -100 degrees Fahrenheit.  You heat up in a sauna that they bring to a roasting 200 degrees Fahrenheit, then go outside where it's 300 degrees colder.  You have to be naked (you're allowed to wear shoes).  You run around the barber-pole-striped marker for the geographical South Pole (seen here), which is some distance away from the building, and run back inside.  This fellow did it in 1982.

The tradition continues.  Here's Henry, who joined the 300 Club in 2002.  Surely the photo didn't need such a big censorship overlay – there must be quite a bit of shrinkage at -100 degrees. 😉

Another South Pole tradition is the naked Christmas Run around the South Pole marker, like this guy did in 2010.  Christmas is summer at the South Pole, so the temperature is a bit warmer (averaging a balmy -16 degrees F), but running barefoot is probably not a good idea.

We close with this photo of Jay Austin at the South Pole.  Since the South Pole is at the bottom of the world, does that mean that he's right side up?

Roman Emperors - Part 1

 Caesar to Claudius

The Romans, like the Greeks, were not prudish about the human body.  Citizens lounged and socialized naked in communal public baths, separated by sex.  Sculptors represented mythical heroes and gods as nude statues.  Roman emperors would certainly not have appeared nude in public, but it was considered entirely proper to make nude statues of them, putting them artistically into the same category as heroes and gods.

Julius Caesar was not an emperor, but he belongs in this group.  He was assassinated on the Ides of March, 44 BC by a group of senators who feared he was planning to become emperor.  This statue of Caesar in the Louvre museum in Paris was made sometime between 27 BC and 14 AD.

After Caesar's assassination, civil war erupted for control of Rome, and the winner was Caesar's nephew and adopted son Octavian, who proclaimed himself the first Roman emperor under the name Augustus Caesar.  This statue in the Louvre dates from the 1st century BC.

The next emperor, Tiberius, left no nude statues that we could find, but this equestrian statue in the British Museum is thought by some to be the third emperor, Caligula.  Caligula has gone down in history as one of the worst emperors, evil and possibly insane.  It's hard to reconcile that reputation with this handsome youth.

This statue of the fourth emperor, Claudius, dates from 48 AD and was found in Herculaneum, a city which was buried by the same eruption of Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii.  Claudius was afflicted by a limp and almost certainly did not have the muscular body of this statue.  The heads of these statues are thought to be realistic representations even if the bodies are idealized heroic forms.

More Roman emperors to come.

Protests - Part 1

 Gay Liberation

This 1971 Gay Liberation demonstration in New York City was photographed by LIFE photographer Grey Villet.   None of these photos were published in the magazine.

Some of the demonstrators were naked.

In an earnest discussion with another demonstrator.

A group hug shows solidarity.

Note all the photographers at left.  What's a guaranteed way to attract attention to your cause?  Show up naked!

Festivals - Part 1

 Woodstock

Another great place to find unashamed men has been music festivals.  We have to start with Woodstock in August, 1969.  The Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 was earlier, but it was Woodstock that set the pattern for future events.

400,000 people showed up at a farm in Bethel, NY (Woodstock actually wasn't held in Woodstock, NY).  Despite the crowding and shortages of food and sanitation, but possibly because of the abundance of drugs, there was no violence.  It was a counterculture event, and hippies were there in abundance.  There was a pond on the site, and like many later festivals, people just stripped naked to swim ...  (Photo by LIFE photographer Bill Eppridge)

or play in the water ...  (Photo by Burk Uzzle)

or wash.  (Photo by LIFE photographer John Dominis)

And some attendees saw no need for clothes even away from the pond.  This flower child was content with just some goldenrod and a necklace.  (Photo by Burk Uzzle)

LIFE magazine published this photo of two attendees au naturel.  (Photo by Bill Eppridge)

Nudity was so common that it became entirely unremarkable.  This guy is attracting no attention at all.  (Photo by Bill Eppridge)

And consider this guy standing naked in a dense crowd.  He seems to be talking to a guy a few rows back.  Nobody else is looking at him.  (Photo by Tom Miner)

More unashamed festivals to come.

Vintage Military - Part 2

Finland, 1940-1941

Although the U.S. didn't enter World War II until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the war had been going on in Europe since Hitler's invasion of Poland in September, 1939.  Two months later, the Soviet Union attacked Finland, and Finland fought Russia until the war ended in 1945.

But even at the height of the war, Finnish soldiers managed to indulge in their beloved saunas, and thanks to intrepid war reporters, we have the photographic evidence.

Peripatetic LIFE photographer Carl Mydans took this classic photo of a Finnish soldier fetching water for the sauna in 1940.

I'll wash your back if you'll wash mine.  Saunas are not for washing.  You wash before entering the sauna.  This and the following photos and video show Finnish soldiers in 1940-1941.  All are from SA-kuva, the Finnish wartime photo archive.

Those bundles of birch leaves are called vihta.  You beat yourself with them to increase blood circulation and open the pores.  

After roasting in the sauna, you run outside and jump in the lake to cool off

In the winter, maybe someone has made a hole in the ice.

Or you can just roll in the snow.

If a log cabin sauna isn't available, a woodland sauna made of branches and dirt will do.

Or, in a pinch, even a sauna tent.

These are Russian prisoners taking a sauna.  The Finns allowed even enemy prisoners to take saunas.  To deny them that would be uncivilized.

For a Finn, this is heaven.

 College Streaking - Part 3

College streaking is nearly as old as this country.  In 1788, Charles Adams, son of President John Adams, is said to have been disciplined for running naked around Harvard Yard.  In 1804, George William Crump, a student at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) was arrested for running naked through Lexington, Virginia.  He later became a U.S. Congressman.

But the peak of college streaking happened in the spring of 1974.  Today's photos were published in March, 1974 in the French magazine Paris Match in an article "Streaking on American Campus."  Unfortunately, they don't identify the campus.  Does anyone know which college or university this is?

Poem of the Day - Part 4

 Old King Cole

Today's poem is a familiar nursery rhyme.

Old King Cole

Was a merry old soul

And a merry old soul was he;

He called for his pipe

And he called for his bowl

And he called for his fiddlers three. 

(And who wouldn't call for those three fiddlers?  First fiddler is Chris Marchant, violinist with the Well Strung Quartet.  Second fiddler is Saul Harris.  We don't know the third fiddler, but he apparently finds his music very exciting.)

Art

Naked Art Museum Tours

Many museums have nude artworks that you can view.  Australian artist Stuart Ringholt (at left) has turned that concept ass-backward, so to speak.  He conducts tours of modern art museums where the art isn't nude but the viewers are.

In his tours, both he and the tour members are naked (and must be 18 or older).  The museum is closed to other visitors.  This is a tour of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney.  Photos by Christo Crocker.

His tours are sellout events.  One suspects that the attraction is not the modern art, but the opportunity to exhibit yourself naked and/or to see the other tour members naked.

The artwork here is painted on the wall, called Sunrise #3 by Robert Owens.  I have to admit, I wasn't looking at the wall.

Ringholt has done nude museum tours at several museums, mostly in Australia.  This is a tour of of the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.   Tour members are gathering in the lobby.  Photos by Christo Crocker.

The tour group goes up the escalator ...

... and down the hallway.  That's Ringholt in front, leading the tour.

On this tour, the National Gallery was featuring an exhibit by artist James Turrell, who makes art out of projected light.  This is "Virtuality Squared" (2014).

The tour viewing another James Turrell work.  What can I say?  It's modern art.

Here Ringholt is conducting a tour of the Institute of Modern Art in Brisbane.

Where is the art?  Well, Ringholt is a performance artist, so one suspects that in his tours, the real art consists of him and the tour members.  There may be something to that.  Since ancient times, artists have considered the human body to be a beautiful thing.  Well, some are more beautiful than others.

But I think we can be excused if we'd rather look at Stuart Ringholt than the art.