Sinful Sunday: 143/500

I did not intend to write this post on a Tuesday! For one thing, I’m roughly 36 hours too late for the link-up deadline, so don’t stand any chance of winning one of the fabulous prizes Molly has lined up for this most auspicious of Sinful Sundays. For another…well, the clue is in the name! This is in no way a midweek meme, yet here I am, styling it out like a schoolboy trying to get away with handing in an overdue piece of homework.

Any other week, I obviously wouldn’t bother. I’d wait another five days and post it to the next link-up instead. However, this is not ‘any other week’, and it’s definitely not just any other Sinful Sunday. As most of you reading this will already know, it’s Sinful Sunday #500! How could I not take part??

It’s a little over seven years since I first posted a Sinful Sunday photo. I know a lot of people follow from a distance before taking the plunge (perhaps unsurprisingly, given the stigma around, y’know, getting naked on the internet), but I was so excited by the discovery of a whole community tied together by a love of erotic photography that I HAD to jump straight in.

It wasn’t long till I was completely hooked. The positive feedback; the lack of judgement; the creativity, diversity and openness on display every single week was just a joy to behold. Scrolling through the submissions each Sunday morning helped me so much as a photographer, but it also taught me a lot about my own sexuality and the things that turn me on. Like most people, I was used to seeing a certain body type in porn, or naked/sexualised in movies, TV shows, etc. Sinful Sunday quickly forced me to challenge the views I’d internalised on what is and isn’t ‘hot’.

Over the last seven years – and including this week’s overdue offering – I’ve taken part in Sinful Sunday 143 times. That’s 28.6% of the overall total, and 38.2% of the weeks since my first post, so a little more than one Sunday in three. When I crunched those numbers, they kind of made sense to me: I’ve definitely been a regular participant, but I don’t have either the inspiration or the inclination to post something every week. When I broke them down by year (NERDDDDD), a clearer pattern emerged.

Again though, it wasn’t one that came as a surprise. From 2014-16, I averaged one Sinful Sunday post every two weeks. I was blogging loads, I was pretty footloose and fancy-free, and I had lots of time to both plan and execute a whole series of adventurous and experimental photos. In 2017, I had a wedding to plan and a new job taking up a lot of my time, but Liv and I were still able to make blogging a real focus, and pushed each other to keep coming up with new Sinful Sunday ideas.

By 2018, we were getting ready to welcome a new family member, but pregnancy brought with it a whole different set of photo opportunities, so I still managed 18 posts. 2019 and 2020 though? Well let’s just say parenting consumes a LOT of bandwidth, and apparently that extends to my creative energy too.

I’m now determined that I’ll finish 2020 with at least the same number of Sinful Sunday posts as I managed in 2019 (10). In 2021, I want to beat that number. I might not make it back to 18 or 22 – and certainly my 2016 peak of 30 seems entirely out of reach – but 12? 15? I reckon that’s doable. Even in Covid times, when the opportunities for collaboration are more limited.

And that’s the beauty of Sinful Sunday! Even after seven years and 500 editions, it’s still forcing me to re-examine my photographic goals, and to think about how they tie in with my current relationship with my body and my sexuality. As a format, a concept, a creative project, it still feels fresh.

That’s partly because the community around it is constantly evolving. While there are plenty of people posting now who were also around in 2013, far more have come and gone during that time. Despite that, you can log on to the Sinful Sunday site in any given week and find anywhere from 30 to 50 submissions, ranging from passable to exquisite to absolutely fucking EXTRAORDINARY.

Mainly though, the success, endurance, and freshness of Sinful Sunday stems from one remarkable source: Molly herself. As long as she continues to run it, I’ll find a way to take part, whether it’s one week in three, one week in five, or one week in 10.

To celebrate Sinful Sunday #500, I want to share a photo Liv took yesterday lunchtime, when the sun was pouring through our bedroom window and I’d just brought myself to a shivering, shuddering orgasm. To me, it possesses most if not all of the qualities that I associate with my seven-year-long Sinful Sunday experience: it was loosely planned out in advance, while leaving room for spontaneity and impulse; it pays attention to light and framing, without being completely governed by them; it’s unashamedly explicit, but that’s not its only point or feature; and it captures – in some way or on some level – absolute joy.

So thank you Molly, thank you to everyone who’s ever taken part in Sinful Sunday or commented on my photos, and here’s to the next 500!