Alicia Silverstone Strips Bare For PETA Campaign

The work of a nude photographer in London is more varied than some people think. Many imagine the role is simply to provide footage for pornography, or an artistic representation of the female form for an exhibition or magazine shoot. But there can be other purposes to posing nude as well.

Among the most powerful can be using nakedness in this way as a means of campaigning for a cause. The latest example among many of this is that of actress Alicia Silverstone.

The American has previously insisted she would never perform nude or strip off for the cameras, but has broken this pledge in support of animal rights group PETA.

Images of her posing naked between cactuses, with just her hands covering up her modesty, have appeared on New York billboards.

Her aim is to support the use of ‘vegan leather’ made from cactuses, mushrooms and other plants, rather than that taken from animal hide.

Whatever one’s views on the arguments forwarded by groups such as PETA, there can be no doubt that the sight of a naked woman - especially a famous one - will ensure much more notice is taken of the campaign, which is, of course, just what the group wants.

Alicia Silverstone’s actions are nothing new, of course. Other actors to pose naked in support of PETA include Dominique Swain in an anti-fur campaign.

Some may argue this kind of thing stretches back way before the age of photography and billboards.

After all, it was in a protest over the taxes levied on the citizens of Coventry by her husband the Saxon nobleman Leofric that Lady Godiva is said to have rode naked on horseback through the streets. 

Had she been around today, perhaps she too would have been looking for a photographer to take a few pictures to put up on billboards.