A Facebook friend shared this website...

The Nu Project | Nude Photography by Minneapolis Photographer Matt Blum...a series of honest nudes of women from all over the world. The project began in 2005 and has stayed true to the original vision: no professional models, minimal makeup and no glamour.

...and I loved it.

These are beautiful.  I've picked some images below to illustrate this, and I'm also going to try to say a little something about why I chose these particular ones.  But I heartily encourage you to visit the site

Okay, this one I picked just because the sunglasses remind me of the '80s, and as we  know, I'm a sucker for all things '80s.

Something I just noticed referring back to the site in writing this is just how many of the women are smiling in their pictures.  Funny, but only in a handful of instances of women trying to look "beautiful," do they smile.  It's so striking when it happens, provided that the smile appears natural and unforced, because it makes you feel you've really stolen a glance at a captured moment.  

Like here:  Obviously I do not know who this woman is, probably never will.  Yet, because of this picture, I may know what it feels like to wake up with her.  Looks like it would be a nice feeling.

To me, this one is a full-on symbolism festival--though this is possibly unintentional--I'd love to know how much of it was or wasn't.

What I think the birds represent is our aspirations (and above them, the light, illumination), the ladder the steps needed to achieve them, the chair the temptation to just sit back.

 I'm not sure what the object at far left means because I'm not 100% sure what it is.

Best guess is that it's a painting, in which case I'd say it represents the way we push our feelings about ourselves to one side

(of course, I may be totally bullshitting here).

And the nude woman? Is just a nude woman.  Inasmuch as any nude woman is ever just a nude woman.






There is something that I find so amazing about pictures of women tying their hair up, or back.  I'm not sure what it is.  

Maybe it's because my own hair doesn't grow long and straight like that.  Or maybe because it involves exposing the neck which I admire.  

I might think there was also an element of the raised arms also lifting the breasts, except that another example of this (in of all things, Saw III) is shot from the back, with the woman seated, and is just as beautiful to me.

Here's where I'm going to make the argument for pictures of ladies in their showers for more than just the wet, naked ladies.  There is something so...forthcoming about such pictures.  Especially when taken so as to show the truth

"Nipples of both males and females are one of the erogenous zones, which are generally stimulated by hands or by mouth duringforeplay, which leads to sexual arousal.  Female nipples and areolae have been shown to have greater levels of innervation, as well as more sensitivity, likely due to hormonal influences. During arousal they generally become stiff, erect and protrude.

The nipple and areola of males and females can be erotic receptors, sometimes intense enough to elicit an orgasm in some women. Research has suggested the sensations are genital orgasms caused by nipple stimulation, and may also be directly linked to "the genital area of the brain".In women, sensation from the nipples travels to the same part of the brain as sensations from the vagina, clitoris and cervix."