NORTH CASCADES, WASHINGTON – July 1980

Olympus OM-2 on Kodachrome

I think I invented selfies. I always wanted to have people in my photos but often I was the only human being around … so I became the model. I travelled alone in my younger days so I had no choice. A tripod and a camera with a self timer and me with a classic pose – that’s all I needed. As a result I have a lot of photos of me doing this and me doing that … even skinny dipping in an alpine lake.

In the summer of 1980, I was a ranger at the North Cascades National Park in Washington. For one day a week I had trail patrol. That meant I had to hike up into the mountains and make sure the park visitors were behaving themselves and the trails were in good shape. But there rarely was anyone up on those trails. I’d maximise my trail time by tacking my trail day on to my two days of weekly leave and take a three-day trek into the hinterland.

I found clothes to be quite encumbering so I’d strip down and hike in the nude through the wilderness. It was a communing with nature kind of thing. I’d just keep on my boots and National Park Service cap to identify me as an authority in the unlikely event I’d encounter someone. I’d get hot and sweaty. No worries. I’d just plunge my bare naked body into the Alpine lakes. Even in July these lakes would be frigid as the snow would have only just melted. Before I made the frigid plunges, I had to make sure I documented the moment so I set up the tripod and gave myself five seconds to make the plunge and swim away.