Raging thunder, black skies, dead sun, an endless black sea of ashes on the horizon, and a complete destruction. There's no hope, no living thing. Everything has died as a result of human greed.
As it seems that this is the end, beauty resurrects itself. It's a new dawn, and the time for life to be reborn in the hostile world.
Beauty will never die.
Sometimes one falls into a really dark mood, with no hope and no will to do anything. Whatever may be behind those strange moods I have discovered a great way to get rid of them, it's the healing power of beauty once again.
I was in a gloomy mood early in the morning today, it wasn't because of alcohol or anything similar(didn't go to a party). It was one of those mysterious moments when you suddenly lose your hope and feel that everything around you is pointless.
Usually, when I have that mood I don't want to do anything new. However, I visited Domai today, and all of a sudden that mood simply disappeared. I am not lying, it just vanished(if it didn't then you wouldn't be reading this now). I had a strange power to rearrange everything and to start doing whatever I was procrastinating. It's really amazing what true beauty can do to one's soul.
I discovered this cure a while ago by chance when I was at Body In Mind, since then wherever I feel blue I just visit Domai or Body In Mind and just get rid of that nasty mood. It works!
Try it the next time you're feeling down, you will be glad you did.
It seems that beauty can be better than Prozac. Thanks Polyna for being who you are!
You probably already know by now how Body In Mind succeeds to inspire me with most of its galleries. It's hard not to fall in love with those colorful tasteful nudes that they present. However, there are always times when I feel that something could've been a bit better, and this is one of those times.
Nikkala Stott has an immaculate beauty, and that beauty needs special handling. This fact alone makes me a bit annoyed when I see that her splendid beauty hasn't been handled properly.
I don't object to the idea of the shoot, as it's not that bad(a bit domestic though, it's too "Kinder, Kueche, Kirche", or "Barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen") but my respect for Dwayne Bell tells me that this is not what he meant, it probably is about the sweetness of the cookies and the beauty of Nikkala Stott, with the cookies representing her benevolence and willingness to give the world sweet gifts. At least, that's what I have in mind right now adding it to Graceful Nudes.
My main objection is that some of the images make me feel that there's a strange reddish tint, and sometimes there's a strange blur(Nikkala's face is blurry in the second image, and I always love it when her lovely face is in focus). Those minor issues make me feel that her beauty hasn't been fully captured, and I feel that this is a bit unfair to Nikkala.
The gallery is still good though, and I like it in general, but it won't be my favorite gallery of Nikkala Stott; honestly, I miss Michael White.
An umbrella, a shelter from the rain, from chaos, and from the world. One tends to think that the best thing about an umbrella is that it helps its holder in creating an isolated sphere where natural laws can be changed and manipulated. An umbrella may be a room, a closed door, or anything that gives a sense of protection. However, it always helps its holder have more control on their world.
One of the many fascinating things about umbrellas is their offering of more freedom. Freedom is one of the first attributes of nudity that one admires. This is why this gallery is all about freedom. One may wish that it was shot in an outdoor location, there the meaning of having an umbrella will be very obvious, but this studio photo session still offers a lot for a creative mind.
The gallery starts with Susann holding an umbrella and then it changes to show her putting it to her side. That is a symbol of bravery: she dares to face the chaotic world and to take control of it. Again, bravery is one of the many things that make a woman beautiful.
That's why Susann is beautiful.
The world will be a better place if one starts listening to what beauty has to say. Once one gets rid of the sexual mindset, they will learn a lot from beauty.
Listen!
I think that the worst thing about the adult industry is the presence of many persons whose sole purpose in life is to make money, being deprived of proper ethical behavior they take every opportunity to produce ugliness in order to make more money. Never caring about the models, their beauty, or even their integrity. All a model receives is some semen on her face, a scanty pay, and a lot of disrespect.
What did they create?, an audience that's hungry for more depraved materials(a monster). They have propagated strange ideas about sex and female sexuality, and have lied over and over and over again about women and female sexuality. Helped in the spread of misogyny and the destruction of the lives of many brave women whose only mistake was that they listened to the wrong people.
We now see web sites about very strange acts, and the main problem is that those web sites are breeding more extreme web sites and creating an audience that's hungry for more. Now we see web sites that have no respect whatsoever for their models. This commodification of models is unfortunately widespread. Not only that, but also by becoming a member you receive a complete set of misogynistic beliefs that will help you in becoming hypersexualized and that will give you an excuse for any harm you cause to a woman. Who cares about morality when s/he has a fat wallet? very few people if you ask me.
However, there are some people out there who are disgusted by those strange ways of doing business and are actually fighting for the welfare and safety of their models. Body In Mind is the web site currently having my full respect, not only does their respect permeate all of their galleries, but they fight for beautiful women and their rights.
I may not agree with every single word Dwayne Bell(the founder) says, but I certainly do respect his way of thinking. It seems to me that he's an ethical man who's somewhat influenced by the American pop culture. This isn't a bad thing, but this makes it a bit hard for me to grasp every word he says. He has the first web site that officially started fighting for female beauty while showing the world how beauty should be respected. Female beauty doesn't mean the beauty of the picture, it's the beauty of the model appearing in it and the way with which that beauty affects the photographer and his images. It's not the superficial beauty that we see on television, it's the beauty of her beliefs and ideas.
The most powerful thing about the images found there is that apparently Dwayne searches for the images that have captured the model's personality, not just her outer beauty. I haven't seen Maria Kurapov or Nikkala Stott looking as beautiful as they do there.
This gallery is an example of the images that I referred to earlier. It's a collection of some of my favorite images from that wonderful web site. My favorite image from this gallery would be Elina_2085_large. Just consider the look on the facial expression of the man in the background, it's typical of what you may find in most societies when a woman takes the chance to be herself; another thing that Dwayne is fighting.
For me, Body In Mind has some healing powers. It always enhances my mood, maybe because it always manages to give me hope. Beauty can always heal any soul, and defeat the most vicious of ideas.
Hopefully, one day Body in Mind and all the web sites fighting for female beauty will be able to defeat pornography with all of its foul beliefs.
Please! for the sake of the models and all the beautiful women in the world, always approach pornography with an open mind. I assure you that 99% of what you see is lies, especially with "reality websites".
Also, never listen to pornography when it tells you to disrespect women: women are beautiful creatures and pornography is the worst place to search for answers.
Beauty can fight hatred, that's why I am sure that we can eradicate those strange messages if we all believe in the power of beauty.
Believe!!!
Another Richard Murrian series on Graceful Nudes and a dissatisfied David. I rarely am satisfied when adding M-U-S-E galleries, and I have a pretty good idea why.
Let's start with the paragraph on this gallery page(I didn't write it, they did):
"INDOCHINE: Introducing Valaria, our newest exclusive eighteen year old Muse. Half-Vietnamese, half-Czech, her young exotic beauty resonates in this gorgeous new series.
Photographed nude for the first time." - M-U-S-E
I have many objections, first the eighteen year old part makes it sound like teen porn or a way of satisfying a pornographic fantasy of some viewers. What's so special about being eighteen? I am eighteen and it's one of the last things I say about myself while introducing myself. It sounds to me like some line used to promote this gallery.
After that awkward paragraph they then mention that it's her first nude photographs ever. O.K. we all may mention that it's the model's first time if she looks nervous as a way to excuse any nervousness that may appear in the gallery, but its position here is pointless as she apparently is pretty comfortable with her nudity. Another promotional line.
After that introductory paragraph the first thing that you're likely to notice if you have seen the previous M-U-S-E galleries featured here is that this gallery is very similar to them(Michaela and Jana come to mind). This "templating" is a sign of the loss of one's creativity, a photographer without creativity is making porn, not erotica or tasteful nudes. The subject becomes the female body, and add all that artificial erotica(not that obvious in this gallery) and you've got a new gallery to make some money. This shouldn't be the way artists think; some very successful artists died in debt. Of course I am not saying that Richard Murrian should start roaming the streets with a camera, some posters, and an empty cup. What I am saying is that personal satisfaction and creative work is the pride of a true artist, and from where I stand this is not where M-U-S-E is heading. Mr. Murrian has a great skill, he just needs to listen to his inner mind for a while and to capture the beauty of his models instead of trying to capture something that's not there(sexuality represented as erotica).
The models are beautiful and brave, this is something that every photographer should respect. Don't make her another face in the crowd, show her for what she really is, make her beauty shine and make her stand out, believe me, this is much better than listening to any marketing teams and probably will make money if you wait for a while or market it to the right people. Aiming for the lowest common denominator means that you will show what nudity was never meant to offer.
I am not a fan of erotica, but if you want to do it right, then do it when the model is feeling sexy. You can't tell a beautiful model to put her finger on her lips and to spread her legs, take a picture of her and call it art. That's not art, that's abject pornography.
Anyway, this gallery is to honor Valaria and her beauty. Enjoy!
Eternal beauty, that's what nude photography is all about. Showing how beauty can always survive hatred, wars, blood-shed, senseless dogmas, lies, and massacres. It's the essence of everything, the blessing that no one can rob you of. They may try calling those wonderful models name and falsely claiming that their courage is the source of misery in this world to serve their own purposes, but they can never kill beauty or its appreciation in anyone of us.
Why?, just open this gallery in a new tab and click on any image. It will tell you all the things that I can't describe, it will give you the key to happiness and tell you the secrets of life. It will teach all the things that no educational system being employed in any country can teach. I by no means have the ability to teach you what a single image of those can, not even in a century.
Never be too afraid to learn!
I recently watched an excerpt of a video by Jean Kilbourne that's called Killing Us Softly 3, she was basically discussing how advertising and the media has helped in influencing human beings' perception of beauty all over the world. She is right and I agree with what she is saying there, but I had a sudden realization, I distribute media Online and may even be influencing others' perception of beauty, am I contributing to this?, Have I become one of those whom I hate?
I certainly feature pictures of excessively thin young women, even more, I applaud their beauty without drawing the lines and explaining what I exactly mean. It may be strange that I have never noticed it.
Well, I don't think that I am. I rarely even consider that flat stomach or perfect skin whenever I post a gallery to Graceful Nude, what I see is the whole picture, a beautiful young woman who's enjoying being free and unafraid of sharing her whole beauty with us. The outer beauty is only skin deep, this is not the beauty that I mean. I mainly mean the virtue of getting rid of all that pressure and blessing the world with a smile. Take this gallery for example, it may not be the best gallery I have here on Graceful Nudes but Tiffany has convinced me to feature it with nothing but her smile. I doubt that any woman in her place won't look just as beautiful as she is.
Perfect skin doesn't exist. I only know a few website that do digitally modify the skin of their models to make it "perfect, smooth, and attractive". I won't name those websites, I just don't feature any galleries that have been blatantly modified. The skin is nothing but the outer shell of a radiant soul that's willing to share its kindness and virtue; it means nothing.
I hope that this clarifies everything a bit. I will let you enjoy those galleries now.
Beauty is one of the abstract ideas that are very hard to grasp, there are a lot of persons out there who spend a lot of time trying to define it and to restrict it to certain qualities and values. Beauty is a relative thing, but there are some shared qualities that make a woman beautiful, those are the qualities that some philosophies are trying to represent, and Simple Nudes is one of those philosophies.
No, it's not yet-another-simple-nudes-vs-super-nudes argument, it's just a neutral view of a fan of both philosophies.
Simple nudes have a lot of good principles, the first of which is that natural beauty is more important than artificial one. To me, this means that a woman being herself is more beautiful than a woman trying to be someone else. Being herself means that she's confident and very comfortable with who she is, which is ironically one of the main qualities that super nudes attribute to super beauty. There are no commercials there, no lies, and no fake things. She's not nude for the sake of nudity, she's nude for the sake of freedom.
However, in practice Domai doesn't follow this rigorously, sometimes having strange nudes and labelling them as simple nudes, this often contradicts with its main philosophy. There are some common things in some of Domai's gallery that make me cringe, the most prominent of which is the use of nail polish and very neutral facial expressions in most of the galleries. Anxiety taints natural beauty, which is what they're trying to represent after all.
Also, by contrast sometimes the focus of the image is the models body. The presence of close-ups in most of the galleries and the request for full-breasted models on their photographers' page contradict once again with their philosophy. Which is to enjoy non-sexual beauty for what it is, not what others are telling us is supposed to be.
Sometimes I feel that the photographer concentrates on the model's nudity instead of focusing on her beauty and the feelings that this state gives her.
We don't live in an ideal world, therefore I understand some of those shortcomings, that's why I often go there, it would be great if we can get rid of them though.
On the other hand, super nudes, mainly represented by Body in Mind, offers what can be considered unrestricted beauty. By getting rid of all of the limits(they don't have a lot of erotic or insipid pictures there though), they promise to deliver the most beautiful pictures out there and capturing real beauty which isn't the simple "natural beauty", for natural beauty is enhanced by the artificial beauty which is the beauty that comes from the mind or in other words the model's personality.
Capturing a model's personality isn't an easy task and that's why some of their pictures don't deliver what they promise. However, I don't remember seeing a lot(any?) of close-ups there. Every image is aesthetically fulfilling.
With an update rate less than that of Domai, they claim to concentrate more on quality rather than quantity. It's easy to understand that, but honestly some of their galleries don't completely follow their standards and sometimes I feel strange when they use the word sexy to describe their models. Their theory is great and most of their updates follow their philosophy well, and I don't always like the text accompanying the galleries. For example, their latest gallery of Natalie Oxley has this paragraph:
"Guys, how many times in your life have you been sitting beside a beautiful girl at a party or friend's place and started to imagine her naked? Lost count? Us too. That's why we love this set of Natalie Oxley by R.L. Wainwright. It's like we were sitting chatting with Natalie and then she just started to strip for the fun of it. Instead of just imagining a world full of babes who love stripping off and showing off, enjoy the very real world of Body in Mind, and the happily nude ladies we adore."
This reminds me with the weird statement of Simple Nudes that you're supposed to stare at every beautiful woman walking down the street(I often am too busy to look, or have something better to do). For instance, I have never imagined a beautiful woman naked, why would I?, A beautiful woman doesn't want to hide her body, she will be comfortable being who she is, and if she's that beautiful(=interesting) then I will probably be too busy conversing with her to imagine her naked.
To me(or to Graceful Nudes, if you want to consider it a distinct philosophy), beauty isn't an obsession, it is something that makes life more fulfilling. Beauty resists aging, it comes from the mind and radiates outwards covering the while woman. Her being naked just gives you a chance to appreciate her whole beauty, her nudity represents her self-respect, appreciation of freedom, and confidence. It's not a "have sex with me", but rather a "here I am, beautiful and true" kind of nudity.
I respect both Simple Nudes and Super Nudes, for the beauty they represent and their unique approach to a subject that's often misrepresented. In my opinion, they both provide a unique experience that must be appreciated. They offer a variety that enriches the same subject. I currently prefer super nudes to simple nudes, but my opinion often fluctuates. It's that I now have a strange attraction towards vibrant colors, which are abundant in super nudes but are rare in simple nudes. My advice is that you enjoy both philosophies and then to have your own opinion. I assure you that it's going to be a very fulfilling experience.
We often search for miracles in the wrong places; looking for them in the sky or in trivial everyday coincidences, but we rarely inspect the beauty around us to learn that this beauty is the best miracle of all, not that it's rare, but that it's a true gift of nature, not to its bearer only, but to those surrounding him/her.
Looking at this amazing gallery of Corinna you can't help but notice her beauty and charisma that permeate every image. She has got what it takes to be a beautiful woman: self-confidence, a radiant smile, and the willingness to share that smile with the rest of the world, that's true divinity.
No matter what happens, we should always be glad to have women who are as beautiful as Corinna in this world.
I hope that you will enjoy this gallery by Stefan Soell.
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