Holiday Break

Hello all,

I'm giving myself my annual present of two weeks off from blogging to focus on my eating, drinking and making merry.  I'll be back in January.  See you in 2011!

In the meantime, here's a special seasonal post for you all. Since this is the "season of giving", you may be interested in this list of secular charities. These organizations do great work without any proselytizing. I encourage you to support them.

UNICEF

Oxfam International

Doctors Without Borders

Kiva - Loans that change lives

The Nature Conservancy - Protecting Nature, Preserving Life

Amnesty International | Working to Protect Human Rights

Bernadinism

Unusual and creative work by photographer Alva Bernadine; all featured on one of the most spectacularly weird websites I've seen. (And I've seen a lot!)

Bernadinism

John Tisbury

Congratulations to UK photographer John Tisbury, for being the winner of the 2010 NUDE Magazine - Photo Contest for the image above.

John Tisbury

Jean-Pierre Potez

Classic black & white studio figure studies by Art Nudes reader Jean-Pierre Potez.

Jean-Pierre Potez

The Tattoo Project

A group of tattooed models as interpreted by 12 different photographers, from an interesting project that took place in Vancouver, British Columbia last month.

Thanks to reader Dominique for sending this link in.

Photo by Marc Koegel

The Tattoo Project: Body.Art.Image.

Michael Gesinger

American photographer Michael Gesigner produces beautiful silver gelatin prints, many of them hand coloured.

Don't forget to explore the archives section of his website for much more work.

Michael Gesinger - Photographer

Rudolf Kartelin

Studio nudes in colour by Russian photographer Rudolf Kartelin.

Rudolf Kartelin

idaniphotography and Aisii model

I'm pleased to introduce Romanian photographer Daniel Ilinca and his lovely wife, professional model Ana-Maria. They live in Romania and Ana-Maria recently began modeling again, less than a year after the birth of their first child.

Daniel's site:

idaniphotography

Ana-Maria's site:

Aisii

I don't generally post Deviant Art links as they require membership to view the 18+ images, but I'll make an exception here as there's much more work by both of them in their respective portfolios:

Aisii on Deviant Art

Daniel on Deviant Art

Juan Cossio

Mixed media works by Spanish artist Juan Cossio, who describes himself as follows: "I´m not completely photographer and neither completely painter (in a traditional sense)..."

JUAN COSSIO