Paulina Porizkova shares 'unretouched' picture of herself posing nude for magazine shoot
By Nate Day
The 56-year-old model said she posts racy photos to combat ageism.
Paulina Porizkova is showing some skin.
The 56-year-old model recently posed nude for Los Angeles magazine in a series of joyous and lively snaps taken by photographer Jill Greenberg.
For the shoot, the star kept her look very simple, allowing her long blonde curls to fall over her shoulders. Throughout the photos, Porizkova donned a few colorful rings, while in a pair of photos, she donned stylish heels – one pair bright red and the other black.
In most of the pictures, Porizkova stood or sat on the ground without any props, but a see-through chair was used in a pair of snapshots, while the model also struck a dramatic pose with a cane as well.
Porizkova also took to Instagram on Thursday to share an "unretouched version straight from the photographer."
Posing nude is nothing new to Porizkova, who shares some racy snaps of her own on Instagram from time to time in an effort to battle ageism. She told Los Angeles magazine that, by and large, her campaign seems to be working.
"Most of the reactions have been overwhelmingly positive," she explained. "But the negative ones have been so mean. They’re like, ‘You’re so desperate,’ or ‘It’s time to retire, grandma.’"
She feels differently, however.
"I looked at those pictures of myself without makeup or without clothes, and I just thought, ‘Hey, I look pretty good for my age,'" she explained.
She also looked back on the first time she bared her soul on Instagram.
"The first time I posted a photo of myself bare-faced and not that great-looking was New Year’s morning 2020," the model recalled. "I remember waking up, catching a glimpse of my face in my phone, and going, ‘Holy s--t, who is that?’ I took another picture from a lower angle, and it was also beyond hideous."
It didn't take long for Porizkova to embrace what she saw.
"And then I started thinking, ‘Well, this is what you look like now. This is the truth, and you can’t pretend that it’s not,’" she admitted. "And I decided, ‘You know what? It’s not so bad.’ And I posted it."
That post – and several since – has helped Porizkova's following on grow from 12,000 followers to well over 500,000.
"I think people were craving that sort of authenticity," the star explained of her boom in popularity. "Also, it was the year of COVID. Everybody was miserable and bored, and I was miserable and bored and posting pictures of what I looked like when I was miserable and bored. So I guess that was relatable."
The star also addressed plastic surgery, which outside of collagen-enhancing laser treatments, she's avoided thus far.
"It’s so easy to be judgmental when you’re 30. But now I don’t blame anybody for wanting to look younger. I understand doing a bit of botox, a little bit of filler, to feel good about yourself because looking younger is more accepted by society. But, really, the way to fix [society’s attitudes about aging] isn’t to try to look younger—it’s to get the world to embrace older people the way we are."
