The Nu Project’s Nude Photos Tell The Truth About Women’s Bodies
The Nu Project is a no-glamor honest look at beauty and image in our world.
Female nudity isn’t hard to come by in the media, but the bodies we see usually represent a fairly limited scope of sizes and shapes. The Nu Project, a collection of nude photographs shot by Minneapolis photographer Matt Blum, seeks to add some variety to the mix. Blum started The Nu Project in 2005 but said it really took off when his wife, Katy Kessler, became the project’s editor. Blum sees the photos as filling a void. “When I started shooting nudes there was no project like it,” he told The Huffington Post in an email. The things that I had seen either used models with typical model bodies or average people who were made to look extremely unimpressive. I figured there was a way to treat women (of any size/shape) like models and photograph them beautifully, respectfully without a lot of sexual under or overtones. The women photographed are all volunteers, and most of the pictures are taken in the subjects’ homes — where they feel most comfortable. The Nu Project’s website showcases six galleries of nudes, three shot in North America, three in South America. Although Blum told HuffPost that he feels that they have a “good variety of people involved,” he and Kessler acknowledge on The Nu Project website that they’d love for the subjects to be more diverse. “The hardest part for us is that the project is 100 percent volunteer, so I do not see the women until I show up at their door,” Blum writes on the website. “We’re doing our best to encourage all types of women, but we need volunteers of all backgrounds and walks of life to make the project more complete.” Blum said he ultimately hopes that these images inspire the women who see them to feel better about their own bodies. “It’s been really exciting to hear people react to the images,” he told HuffPost. “We get a lot of feedback from women (especially) who have struggled to see themselves as beautiful, and this project has helped them on that path.”
I am in love with this.
When I was younger I was told I needed to lose weight. I was told that if I lost weight I’d be beautiful, a beauty queen is what many said. Miss America even. I was told if I lost weight I’d find a gorgeous amazing boyfriend, I’d be happy, have a wonderful life. I was told I’d get so much more attention from men, from people in general. I was told I’d die by the age of 30 if I didn’t lose weight, I was told I could die any time soon. All because I’m FAT. I was lied to. “but what if I lose weight and I’m not happy with it?” I’d ask, “You will be” they’d say. Here I am proving them wrong, proving so many wrong. I’m not dead, I’m not dying, I’m very much alive. I’m happy no matter how fat my ass is, I love myself, my life, my friends, my family and my fat girl loving boyfriend. It’s not love, beauty nor life that discriminates.. it’s us. We discriminate against ourselves, against each other and against reality. We’re all human beings, some prettier, some more successful but a heart is a heart, a body is a body and a person is a person. In a way I love you all but most of all I LOVE MYSELF.
So here I am..
Proving you wrong.
"
if I never see you again
I will always carry you
inside
outside
on my fingertips
and at brain edges
and in centers
centers
of what I am of
what remains.”
—Charles Bukowski
HEY GUYS, if the worst comes from Yahoo buying Tumblr, perhaps we could migrate to Soup.Io?
I never used http://www.soup.io/ but in my understanding it’s a very similiar interconnected blogging site.
our escape if anything hapens
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOST.
Yo, we got ourselves a new site if Yahoo fucks everything up!
Just made mine, just in case. http://cumfordaddy.soup.io/
