"making friends"

A question was asked during the justine kurland lecture about whether she felt distanced from her subject(s), and it seemed she didnt quite know how to respond. (as the other shanna later mentioned ; " i mean just how close does she get? is she getting naked with them?")based on my perception of what she said in her tales of making the photographs, i answered the question for her in my own mind. no, there was not much separation going on between the photographer and her subjects. it was not as if she was a diane arbus, capturing that "other", but more as if she were almost part of the other; she seemed to fit in with them.hearing her speak of her mother working in the renaisssance fairs, and then seeing the image of this woman next to a young girl blessing her with the smoke from a sage stick,i began to feel as if i knew this side of her, who she was and what kind of people she most likely interacted with her entire life. i myself had know as a child friends of my own mother'swho loved to be naked, wore feathers in their hair , talked about the meaning of "positive energy", and who always seemed somewhat removed from the rest of the world. they lived in their own little universe. i felt i had had so many similar relationships with people who are on that "wavelength", and even though i might not go to the extreme lengthsthat they might, i still feel more at home with them than many other "normal" people.........
i found it hilariously genius how she again and again referred to those without clothes as "the nakeds" (as opposed to "the nudes") ; it made sense as she explained how her models' function were not to be merely a nude form, but an expression of "freedom of nakedness" (this idea also made them much less sexualized and more innocent/pure)upon hearing kurland speak, it became apparent that she herself shared a similar lack of confining inhibitions created by the "norms" of society....
lastly, i feel her notions made a somewhat nostalgic connection with myself, particularly the "doodling- on- eachother's- back- with -your- fingernails game" that me and my own sister played.........her photographs (and her words) evoked such familiarity with my own way of thought, life experiences, etc