Meet Gabriel Bienczycki | Director and Cinematographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gabriel Bienczycki and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gabriel, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
I began my career as a dancer and choreographer, training at a National Ballet School in Poland and performing professionally in major theaters across Germany, Portugal, Canada, and the U.S. My passion for capturing movement soon led me to teach myself photography and filmmaking, initially to translate my stage work to the screen. Over two decades, this creative shift eventually led me to a career in film, rather than on stage.

My journey into the naked yoga community started with a photography assignment. Years later, the ongoing interest in this work was remarkable; people consistently sought me out online, eager for more content. They noted the significant lack of high-quality naked yoga videos and photography that wasn’t created for erotica or pornography. This overwhelming demand prompted my business partner, Tom Severini, and me to explore this niche and underserved genre of wellness and fitness content. Over the past seven years, we’ve meticulously built a library of over 200 instructional videos. Our focus has always been on presenting the yoga practice aesthetically and non-sexually, featuring women, men, and couples. We’ve included various teachers, yoga modalities, and levels of accessibility, alongside complementary disciplines such as meditation, Tai Chi, Pilates, and circuit training. As dedicated yoga practitioners ourselves, this venture has been a perfect fusion of passion and business. Thus True Naked Yoga (www.truenakedyoga.com) was born.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
The creation of instructional fitness videos with an aesthetic component involves many moving parts, and while our format has remained consistent, our workflow and approach have evolved considerably. Initially, our biggest challenge was finding talent and instructors who aligned with our vision, especially before we had a portfolio of finished programs. The filmmaking workflow, on the other hand, evolved more naturally and wasn’t as difficult to refine; capturing beautiful images becomes straightforward when all other elements are in place.

However, our most significant challenges have actually been in marketing and presenting this work publicly. We quickly realized there’s virtually no mainstream venue online for non-sexual nudity. The era when great artists could sculpt nude statues or paint mythological and biblical scenes featuring protagonists in various states of undress seems long gone. Today, Botticelli’s “The Birth of Venus” might even be labeled as smut and relegated to a porn site. This struggle extends to basic business realities: we’ve lost the ability to accept credit cards twice in the last three years due to shifting corporate guidelines and mainstream banks’ reluctance to do business with “high-risk” vendors like us.

Overcoming these daily hurdles requires immense perseverance and optimism, which is largely fueled by the outpouring of love and support from our loyal community.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I can speak of favorite places to shoot and order set meals from in LA. Our most common place to order from is Sweertgreen (The most popular item at there is the Green Goddess salad dressing) and Tocaya.

For shooting locations, we like to be in fresh air so Topanga Canyon is great for mountain views and Hollywood Hills for classy poolside outdoor areas are our favorite. When it’s too cold to be outside, we often shoot in lofts and industrial spaces downtown LA.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Jannica Klingborg, one of our core instructors, has been with us since the early days, designing hundreds of programs. Her vast knowledge and experience allow her to move effortlessly between modalities and adapt to various difficulty levels and skill sets. Her work on limited mobility programs and partnering flows deserves special recognition.

Website: https://www.truenakedyoga.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/true.naked.yoga/

Image Credits
Gabriel Bienczycki