Torso, 2004
Michael Barnes
Well, in the immortal words of Porky Pig. "Th..Th..Th..That's All Folks!"
563 days ago I got the idea to do a blog and post links to photographers I liked. I did it mainly for myself in order to keep an online source of all my favourites in one place so I could go there for inspiration. If others got to see it and got introduced to some great art, all the better.
Little did I know this would turn into what it did.
Within a couple of months I was getting a 1000 hits a day, and have stayed at those levels pretty consistently. As of today, this blog has had over 316,000 unique visitors. Unbelievable! This was due largely thanks to a permanent link on Indie Nudes that generated fully one third of my hits. Thanks Indie!
So why quit now when things are booming?
Well, the point of this blog has never been commercial success. Believe me, I've rejected dozens of come-hithers from pay porn sites for crosslinking, etc. and I've never had popups or sponsors. I've always tried to keep this about fine art. Don't get me wrong, I'm no puritan, but I believe there is a difference between porn, erotica and fine art and the bottom line is that it's getting harder and harder to find good work to post here. Frankly, I'm getting tired of spending so much time sifting through work that isn't of the right calibre to present to you, the people that rely on this blog for good recommendations. So, rather than rehash old links or resort to linking to sites featuring women in stilletto heels wielding swords, I'm callin' it quits.
Before I sign off, I'd like to say that one of the best things about running this blog has been that I've had the privilege of corresponding with some very cool fellow bloggers and some incredibly talented photographers from around the world. Many of them are included in my permanent links section to the left, so go visit their sites. In no particular order, I'd like to thank Ernesto Timor, Brooks Ayola, Eric Kellerman, Ao Gunji, Doug Earle, Philip Cartland, Takaci Hirano and last but certainly not least Antonio Bogaert for thier participation, suggested links, or nice comments. My apologies to any of you that I've neglected to mention.
Thanks also to my wonderful partner and resident proof-reader Yvonne for all her support and understanding as I spent endless hours surfing nude photos.
I hope that you have enjoyed Art Nudes. I'll keep it up as long as Blogger's servers will let me but from here on in, new posts will be infrequent or non-existent. However, don't forget that there are literally hundreds of posts in the archive, so spend some time exploring them.
So, that's it. Feel free to leave me a note in the comments section, or send me an email. I'd love to hear from you.
Adios amigos
Michael Barnes
