Women happily pose baring their cellulite, their tan lines, their belly creases as they laugh. None of the women photographed are professional models, and the photo “set” is often their unkempt apartment, complete with unmade beds, sprawled magazines, and dirty dishes still sitting in the sink. What’s most remarkable about the Nu Project photos are their powerful depiction of the ordinary. In 2013, the Nu Project published a book collection of their favorite images over the past seven years (available on Amazon). Viewing the images is free and the online galleries reach 2.8 million visitors a year, half of the traffic coming from audiences outside the states.
The entire project is volunteer based: women invite the photographer into their home for the shoot, and agree to have the photos included on the project’s online gallery free of charge.
The Nu Project is an online archive of nude photos of ordinary women around the world. But over the last ten years, Matt and his wife Kat Kessler have built something that has become both an artistic, captivating collection of photography and a project making bold statements about body-positivity and self-love. When Matt Blum began photographing women nude, he didn’t intend to start a movement.