One hundred photographs of naked people, ranging from a housewife to a civil servant, are going on display in an exhibition about modern city life.
Photographer Jojo Moreschi spent a year creating the collection, called Plymouth Unveiled, and he believes it is the first UK project of its kind.
Among the photographs - being shown at Plymouth’s City Museum and Art Gallery - are ones of a nude person playing golf and a family of three generations on their living room sofa.
The photographer has denied that his work is a gimmick.
“It is a serious attempt to unveil what people are like and I hope it will be appreciated on an aesthetic level,” he said.
“I wanted to capture as many layers of people as possible. I have combined traditional nude studies with classic portraiture and reportage.”
Mr Moreschi, 35, said he was inspired to take the photographs because he wanted to learn more about the hidden sides of his home city.
“I discovered that there is a really colourful, vibrant subculture here that I never knew existed,” he said.
He expressed amazement at finding so many people of all ages who were willing to act as his models - only a handful backed out at the last minute.
Museums exhibitions officer, Martin Thomas, said: “You might expect this in a trendy London art gallery, but not in Plymouth.
“However, I don’t think we will get a negative response. I hope most people will think it is humorous and very human.”
He said he was keen to stage the exhibition because it had involved many local people and was clearly rooted in the city.
“The subjects are not all models, they are just average people,” he said.
“When people visit the exhibition there is a chance they will see someone they know in the photographs. It could be their neighbour, friend or even their bank manager.”
A book containing the images is about to be published and the full exhibition will be staged next summer.
Art students have lost the chance to brush up their life-drawing skills - because a job centre banned their adverts for nude models.
Tutors at the Cheshire School of Art in Northwich tried to recruit people prepared to strip for the class.
But staff at the town’s job centre told them the advertisement broke their rules.
New regulations mean they cannot accept work which entails people going nude.
Rowena Beighton-Dykes, a senior lecturer at the school, condemned the regulations as “barmy, small minded and petty”.
She told BBC News Online: “They said they were not allowed to advertise as people might feel pressurised into applying for a job which is inappropriate for them.”
A spokesman for the Employment Service confirmed the adverts had been rejected.
He said: “The guidlelines cover any degree of nudity and that is it basically.”
A statement from the Employment Service added that it no longer accepts vacancies which involve any degree of nudity.
It said: “We recognise that some job seekers may not personally object to these jobs - we do, however, have a duty to protect those job seekers who might.
“No judgement on the respectability of the work involved is in any way implied by our policy in this area.”
Lap dancing
Other job centres have removed adverts for lap dancing vacancies.
Life drawing models can earn Ł9 per hour, while tutors earn Ł15.
Ms Beighton Dykes, 44, said: “Life drawing is a crucial part of our students work.
“We are a grade-one faculty, and inspectors have told us one of our strengths is that we still do life drawing, which can be difficult to pay for.
“We have done our best, but we are struggling to get models.”
On behalf of children and their foster parents, I am asking everyone to please contact their legislators immediately to reverse the cuts they are making in the system.
We have fostered for over 10 years and are also on a fixed income. Although the check they send us helps, it in no way pays for all expenses we pay out monthly to support these children.
We receive less than $13 a day to transport and support the younger children. Any parent can tell you it costs a lot more than that to support a child.
Going on vacations and all the other things we do for our own children we pay for out of pocket for these children.
We have to pay the sitters if we want a night off.
What price do you put on the love and care most children in the system receive from their foster parents? There isn’t one. Where are they going to put 14,000 foster kids when foster parents who have their own to support can’t take state wards anymore?
Is this in the best interest of the child? Where will they go? Who will care for them?
I am afraid that if these cuts take place, there are going to be a lot more stories with tragic endings in the news. They are also taking away our foster support people. Who will we call late at night and on weekends for problems that are taking place? This is a big mistake people.
Gaszewski.com features the fine art photography of Polish photographer Renek Gaszewski. It is an artistic exploration of female beauty with the primary subject matter being young girls age eighteen to twenty years old. The photography within is ultra-high-resolution black & white presented in exhibition format. Each exhibit contains anywhere from 10 to 50 selected photographs in three different sizes (typically 600, 1500, and 4000 pixels) for easy viewing and maximum, breathtaking enjoyment.
Two things are paramount here: 1) this is not a sexually oriented publication and does not contain any provocative or sexually suggestive photography or text whatsoever, and 2) all models were eighteen years or older at the time they were photographed. It’s also worth mentioning that Gaszewski.com is not your typical “girly” publication that plays to the baser desires of its intended audience. Such themes as sexuality, fantasy, and dominance are not part of this work, and indeed, Gaszewski.com is a direct result of fighting against that mentality with regards to its subject.
Gaszewski.com is intended to be a serious, photographer’s study of the flawless beauty that is so unique to young women as they mature into full womanhood. It is also an attempt at capturing the unique energy and personalities possessed by its subjects. Already a large body for work with over seventy-two individual exhibitions upon it’s official publication in November, 2006 there are hundreds more in development featuring even more stunning material. This promises to be one of the most unique and beautiful mega-sites ever to grace the internet.
Patrons are encouraged to provide feedback and may contact the the artist directly anytime - see the Contact Us page. And Gaszewski.com is published and managed by GModels, a leader in providing high-quality, customer-driven web publications since 1998. So we guarantee you’ll have a positive experience while enjoying this most beautiful work for many years to come.
Italian actress Sophia Loren, 71, has become the oldest woman to pose for the celebrated Pirelli calendar.
The Oscar-winning star is one of five actresses to appear on the calendar’s 33rd edition, due out in November.
Naomi Watts, Penelope Cruz, Hilary Swank and France’s Lou Doillon will also appear, according to reports.
Loren said she “had a lot of fun, like a young girl” posing for the calendar. Pirelli has denied reports she has been photographed nude.
A picture from the photo shoot published in Milan’s Corriere della Sera newspaper shows the actress in lingerie under a bed sheet.
The calendar is being shot by Dutch photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Winoodh Matadin.
Loren was born in 1934 and grew up in the slums of Naples.
She started working as a model> at the age of 14, and was ushered into acting by future husband Carlo Ponti.
In 1962, she won a best actress Oscar for her role as Cesira, a woman who flees Rome with her daughter during World War II, in the Italian-language film Two Women.
She was also given an honorary Oscar for her body of work in 1991, calling her “one of the genuine treasures of world cinema”.
Her films include Marriage Italian Style, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, and A Special Day.
The Pirelli calendar, which often features nude models, was first published in 1964 and is distributed to a select group of 30,000 people each year.
