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.”
there are parts of my body i imagine away every time i picture myself. i often am quiet about it because society doesn’t shun my “type” as much as it does others. i think regardless of shape, we pretend away the parts of us that make us real. these are all real women. and i am too. and i need to remember my body was made to hold organs and to work as a magnificent organism and that in itself is beautiful. this makes me feel good.
Sex Worker: Still not asking for it by dyke-recovery
I’m a feminist and a sex worker and i am so very, very sick of the “is it rape or theft if you fuck a hooker?” or the i use to get “You work in a strip club you shouldn’t get pissed off when someone tries to touch you, you’re the one working there”. Sorry but this is a service, not the selling of ones’ body or body parts. We own us, we decide how much we do, NOT the client or patron. We have the same rights as every other woman; to feel safe not only in our personal lives but in our work lives. It is not okay to do more than what is agreed to when paying for a service from a sex worker. If you are told no, you are told NO.
If a banker gets robbed did he deserve it because he is a banker? No.
If a soldier is shot during war, did he deserve to be shot purely for being a soldier? No.
Does a psychologist deserve to be verbally attacked because they’re paid to listen to other people’s thoughts? No.
So does a sex worker deserve to have their services abused purely because they are working in the sex industry? No.
Um I’m pretty sure a “sex worker” is just a fancy term for prostitution so I think that deems your argument invalid
Um actually a sex worker is a prostitute, a stripper, a cam worker, a porn star a porn model, a sugar baby so no my fucking argument is not invalid and if a prostitute says “hey man i don’t do x service” THAT DOES NOT GIVE THE CLIENT THE RIGHT TO DO X SERVICE JUST BECAUSE CLIENT HAS PAID FOR A SERVICE AND IF A SEX WORKER OF ANY KIND INCLUDING A PROSTITUTE SAYS NO THE ANSWER IS NO. “NO” DOES NOT BECOME INVALID JUST BECAUSE THE PERSON SAYING NO IS A PROSTITUTE.
