Oxford RAG is producing a naked calendar of the University’s sports teams.
Although the calendar photos are being saved as a surprise, RAG offered Cherwell an exclusive preview of the rowers limbering up for their shot on Monday.
The calendar, which will include photos of the swimming, ruby league, fencing, athletics, rowing and netball blues teams, will go on sale later this year.
Louis Geary, Events Vice President for RAG who has been overseeing the project told Cherwell, “This is one of RAG’s many fundraising initiatives that occur throughout the year. Though naked calendars are clearly not an original idea, the suggestion that we make one for university sports teams was based on the fact that colleges tended to produce their own, but these lacked broader appeal. With the variety and familiarity of blues sports and the artistic expertise of our photographer, Toby Mather, we are expecting this to be the charity naked calendar to trump all others. As a result this is set to raise a lot of money for RAG’s four student-elected charities.”
He continued, “So far the shoots have been in very good humour. There was always going to be the challenge of capturing the essence of a sport, with the added complication of everyone being naked, and teams have had a great time coming up with ideas of how to frame their shot.”
Sylvia Hong, who has been documenting the process for The Preview Show, a student run television show in Oxford, also encountered issues with the athletes’ nudity, commenting, “It’s been a real pleasure to work with Rag Team and the University’s sports team. That said, in our case because we are filming, it was sometimes difficult to shoot from the right angle in order to respect the athletes’ privacy.
However, most of them have been really understanding and helpful, therefore we were able to capture a very relaxed and good atmosphere during the shoots.”
The Preview Show plan to release a short trailer before the release of the calendar, and a longer feature next Michaelmas 2013.
Later this year RAG is also planning a university-wide sponsored bungee jump, as well as Jailbreak.
Enquiries about the calendar, including teams wanting to get involved, should contact [email protected].
