Aletta Shikololo
WINDHOEK – Even though nudity is probably one of the most sensitive topics in the country, Namibian freelance model and nudist, Ndamononghenda Loth is a nudist who is not ashamed of expressing art through nudes.
Entertainment Now! met the exceptionally confident Loth, who was not shy to talk about her life and what she does for a living.
Loth, who regularly uploads naked photos of herself on social media, said in an interview with this reporter she embraced nude photography to create awareness on ‘mother nature’ and to tell ancient stories of the Namibian people and their cultures.
“Every location has its own story to tell, for example, the Namibian desert is one of the oldest in the world and its beauty is in its own curves. On this project, I had the opportunity to work with photographers and models from within and outside the country,” explained Loth.
Loth describes herself as a lover of photography and nudity is just another way of expressing herself. Loth says she feels liberated and free when she takes nude photos.
“I am not just taking naked pictures but I am telling a story, I am creating awareness on self-love as well as art. I am motivating women of all body shapes to love and appreciate their bodies and who they are, regardless of how society projects them,” she said.
A University of Namibia Photography lecturer, Christian Goltz, explained to a local daily the concept of nude photography. “In artistic nude photography, the aim is to produce beauty, i.e. something aesthetically pleasing. The intention is to touch the viewer’s soul. Like with all art, the work is frequently produced for the love of it and not for commercial purposes.”
“Nudity is liberating, educational and a form of awareness. It teaches you to love your natural beauty regardless of the flaws you consider to have”.
“Nudity is accepting and enjoying who and what you are as a human, without wanting to be like the next person. It’s about embracing mother nature because you as a human, you are part of nature. It’s about being yourself and not shrinking yourself to blend into society,” Loth clarified to those that do not understand nudity.
Taking nudes has nothing to do with sexual pleasures, its more of expressive art, she maintained. Even though Namibia is a small conservative nation, it has a lot of Western influence and people should be open to all forms of art, she added.
Despite the criticism that Loth encounters on a daily basis, she mentioned that in every criticism, there is good and bad and that is a learning curve for her.
“I don’t take bad things personally, so I remind myself why I am doing what I do and focus on my end goal,” Loth said, insisting that every successful person has been criticised but they succeeded anyway because they remained focused.
Loth has been working on a project with ‘Nudegem’, an international nude photography project that was founded by a Russian couple, Valdyslav and Samantha Yavorsky.
The mission of the project is to capture the delicate and natural feminine beauty of 1001 souls, inspired by Scheherazade from 1001 nights (a major female character and the storyteller in the frame narrative of the Middle Eastern collection of tales known as the One Thousand and One Nights,” she explained.
For many parents, children’s nudes are the last thing they would want to see, which makes Loth's parents different because even if they do not approve of her choice 100 percent, they still support her ideas and motivate her to do better. On the comparison between nude photography and pornography, Loth said: “Pornography, on the other hand, is about explicating or showing sexual acts for the purpose of arousal but simple nudity by itself is not arousing at all.”
She further explained that the connection between nudity and pornography is that sex is just one more thing in life more comfortable done nude.