Note: Prof. Shaffer’s essay, “On the Environmental Nude,” is in the January 2008 issue of Environmental History.

For those of you who are interested, I have uploaded to flickr the unaltered photograph from my current gallery essay, “Environmental Nude.” Here is the URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11829233@N06/2337777773/

I struggled with agreeing to allow the girl to be cropped from the image. Not only was I concerned about the professional ethics of altering a historical document, but also I thought the meaning of the photograph was dramatically changed.

While in Boise I randomly showed a few people the image to see what they thought. I thought Ed Russell’s response was the best. I asked him whether he thought the image was potentially pornographic, he responded, “Pornography is about sex. That is just a naked kid.”

I think what has been most interesting to me in the discussion about the image is how cultural meaning is imposed on the human body. It suggests just how provocative the body can be as a subject of environmental history.

Best,

Peggy Shaffer