Every December, Christians around the globe recount the story of poor lonely shepherds who received the fantastic visitation of an angelic messenger heralding the arrival of their messiah. The angel was shortly joined by an entire choir of heavenly beings.The story is amazing on the face of it, of course. But it raises some seldom asked questions as well. That shepherds should stay out at night suggests that the weather was not particularly cold. And if they weren't cold, and if they were only in the company of their fellow men in the dark of night, one wonders how important it would have been to be covered by all those robes that religious art always depicts? Men will be men, and it's likely that those doing little more than watching sheep might need a little diversion, even if it were at their own hands.
Then there is the visionary experience itself. Have you ever noticed how many paintings and sculptures of religious ecstasy show people with their o-face on? These artists may have tapped into a greater truth, a profound connection between religious euphoria and sexual release.
It was with those thoughts in mind that photographer Adam Andrew Caldwell and I decided to explore the truly ecstatic nature of this mythic tale. In this view, the shepherds were not only in touch with the divine creation of their own bodies, but were brought to an even higher state of physical exultation by the erotic manifestation of a sensuous angel.
To see the results of this photographic meditation, strip down, head on over to the Nakedism photo collection, and invoke the gallery we call Come Ye Shepherds. And while you do, feel free to engage in a devotional ritual of your own.
