Welcome to #SummerInternet, Day 33.
Today we take a look at an Instagram account called Levenbutt, which contains around 150 photos (so far!) of one man posing nude around New York City. There's no full frontal here, as the man behind the project—Jeremy Levenbach—is just posting belfies. Do they looked Photoshopped to you?
We wanted to get to the bottom of this, and went straight to the source. Levenbach assured us, "These are all 100% real. I'm definitely naked in these places." Butt why? His mission seems to be simple: to entertain.
"The first few were just ones that I passed along to friends who thought they were funny. People kept telling me to post them Instagram so I did. I like having projects."
On his Tumblr page, he adds that he "looks silly naked." That's a kind of earnestness that we can get behind.
Levenbach tells us he's been taking these photos "for about 2 years. Just me naked in a bunch of different places. I think the shots are fun and usually pretty well composed." But do the photoshoots make people uncomfortable?
"Usually these (the public ones) are done around the time the sun comes up. I try to do it while nobody is around. If there are people close by I give them a heads up and make sure it's not going to upset them. If people are far away I just go for it. I make a real concerted effort to make sure their are no children or women by themselves nearby, I'm not trying to scare anyone or ruin people's mornings. In most cases people laugh and shout funny things, and I assume chalk it up to some weirdo doing some 'art thing.'"
Levenbutt, you deserve this license plate more than anyone.
