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.”
Olivia King | http://behance.net/oliviaking
“Using a selection of native Australian materials, and hand painted wood, the first prototype designs were endless and I quickly realized the potential for project where the designs weren’t mine, but those of the customers themselves. Using the Trig app, each piece is unique the tastes and style of those making them, with colour, shape and material options available in multiple variations. The final products are finished with natural oils and packaged in bright boxes with personalized thank you cards, ready for wear within days of their creation.”
Olivia King is a designer and illustrator based in Sydney, Australia. With passions for typography, hand lettering, illustration and branding, she’s a cider-drinking, paper-loving, challenge-seeker, who sees opportunity in everything and thinks the world would be a better place if typography was made compulsory in high school. When not watching reruns of The West Wing with her twin, listening to The National or wanting to be Jessica Hische, she studies Visual Communications and currently works as a designer and letterpress printer at The Distillery
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Minsk Style
Despite being a national capital and a city of considerable size (with the population of nearly 2 million people), Minsk lacks a clear identity. Its residents define themselves mostly by nationality, and admit that Minsk does not have a particular culture or tradition of its own. INSTID was asked to help improve international recognition of Minsk to help it attract foreign investment, visitors, and talent. Within the city itself, the task was to help residents feel proud of Minsk and develop a unique city culture based on their distinct character, and create a powerful platform for city’s future development.
