Lara Verheijden is a photographer who investigates the relationship of human beings to their nakedness and sexuality. She explores, that is, the experience of photography as a perceptive eye interrogating the essential - a component usually overlooked - by asking both the subject photographed and the photographer what is the meaning and importance of the body and the sexuality that emanates from it.

A quest that Lara pursues with an empathy that distinguishes her net of her profession, capable of creating a human artistic complicity. In recent years she has kicked off a nude calendar project, shot each year in a different place in the world. This was the time of Tokyo: let's ask her what’s happened there. Out December 1.

Your newest nude calendar 2024 is about to be launched, and this time the location, suggested by your followers and friends through an Instagram poll you carried out, has been the city of Tokyo. So I would love to know what you perceived there. Your work as a photographer relies heavily on sensory elements too: did you find shapes, colors and dynamics, even in small details, different from Western decoupage, that touched you sensorially and mentally? Did you find inspiration in them?

Absolutely. Of Course we had to do a lot more inside since the nudity laws there. I absolutely love the Japanese interiors and the cover image is a very good example of what kind of heavenly sensory elements inspired me in that space (a public bath house). On my insta I already talked about the Sento's, the japanese bath houses with their 80's/90s bathroom esthetic, naked people, intimate daily life sphere and fresh colors. Also what I enjoyed a lot is the way that japanese people experience nudity, especially the people I photographed. It's very different then the rebellious vibe that comes with nudity in for example Berlin or Amsterdam. Not that I prefer one of these, but it's just inspiring to feel the difference. Therefore the series is completely new and has a fairytale and classic feel to it, very different then the more frivole or rebellious european nudity-vibe.

How would you describe what had become one of your typical shooting days there?

Well like I said we shot a bit more indoors then usual, so that gave the shoots a less provocative vibe, then for example on the busy canals of Amsterdam or something. It was really hot and I'm getting better at what I do, at least, I can get quicker to the point of what I want to make. I think the shoots were less long and intense because of these 2 reasons. With some of the models there was also a bit more of a language barrier, so we would talk more with google translate then I normally would in Berlin or the Netherlands.

I envision that every artistic process seems to be somehow approximately the same, experienced in every place in the world. Yet for an artist to travel and reiterate this process in a place far from home must be peculiar, as if it is activated in a different way. How did it make you feel to be taken to take photographs not only as far as Tokyo, but in the nakedness of individuals in Tokyo? Did this move something within you?

It absolutely did. It was very humbling that we were able to find people who even knew my work and were willing to work with me, that far away from where I live. And actually I must say that it always moves me, when I do (semi) nude shoots with people. It remains a special thing to create something together like that and that people put their trust in me for that moment and that you share that kind of intimacy. I found the people there also very relaxed and as models true to what they wanted to do or show.

On a different level it's also easy in a way to be that far from home, doing new things does make my work better I think. You have to rethink and do new things, instead of doing the same old trick in the same environment.

What was the most vivid and moving experience you had among the shoots in Tokyo?

It's lot's of things. But if I had to choose something now... I think it was the shoot in the Sento (the cover image and also the pregnant woman from February). Because the first time I set foot in a place like that, recreationally, all I could think was how amazing it would be to be able to do a shoot there. And immediately I tried to take my mind off it, because I thought it would NEVER be possible. It's really not the vibe there, that people walk around expecting to be photographed. It's extremely private and intimate and sweet. So when one of the models told me she found a place, I couldn't believe it until the moment we were actually doing it.

I was pregnant, one of the models as well, we were four girls inside the empty sento that opened just for us. It was such a beautiful place and it was nice and warm and watery, so it was just the best 2 hours ever. I sound dramatic, but it really was haha. Also the owner was very sweet and wanted to do a short quiz with us, after we finished. He asked us who the famous 'mercedes' car was named after. It was a multiple choice, and I guessed correctly! (Won't spoil it here)

What do you unveil about a person, psychologically and spiritually, when that person unveils his most intimate parts?

That's a good question. I think you unveil a lot of interesting things, both from the model as from me as artist as well. Since it's both dependent on what a person wants to show to you (or to the viewer), adn what you project on someone, it's a co-creation that gives insight in both the model as a subject and actor and me as the artist. How a person carries themself naked. What nudity or sexuality means for that person. If the bodily or the sexual element are equally important for the model or for me? Or one thing more than the other. I can go on for a while.