Mens Sana In Corpore Sano

Warning: Not Safe For Work due to tasteful nude photos.

Yeah, that’s right Sister Angelica THAT’S LATIN!

And you said I’d never amount to anything besides a second-rate, do-nothing, waste-of-humanity. I proved you wrong on at least one of those counts so take your orthopedic shoes and ill-fitting habit and shove it.

Now before you go and get your plaid skirts and kneesocks in a wad over what promises to be another gut-wrenching Catholic school playground flashback , let me assure you I have an actual point and I’m quickly making my way to it.

Recently I’ve been on a photo book review tear for another site I work for, and while I love all kinds of reading and viewing materials, photo books hold a special place in my heart.

I can just hear you right now: “Oh bless her simple heart, she likes books with lots of pictures and pretty things to hold her attention!” And yes, that would be a big part of it, but I happen to have been a photography MINOR in college.

It started out as a major but ended in tragedy when I received a strongly-worded letter from my parents about how four years and thousands of dollars better end in a day job that would suck all joy out of my life.

Thanks mom and dad.

But I digress.

Today, I’m here to talk about yet another photo book that I came across that peaked my interest for several reasons.

One, it’s an honest, moving and quite beautiful look at real bodies shot by a lensman who seemingly loves his subjects.

Two, the man behind the camera is fucking Spock.

That’s right people, everyone’s favorite Vulcan is the camera genius behind The Full Body Project: Photographs By Leonard Nimoy.

The book is a provocative jab at the media ideal and all that they are selling you to get you where they want you, which is a mean little place where everyone’s clearly been reaching for the lowest hanging fruit instead of stretching up to the land of hard-gleaming glutes and oiled-up pecs!

Anyway, this collection of 50 photographs had a startling effect on me as soon as I was ten pages into it. As someone who is always looking at pictures of herself after the fact and critiquing every flaw, the models here represent all body types, yet seem so at ease in their own skin. It’s an acceptance I wish I could find for myself at times.

The female body is a miraculous and wonderful thing capable of giving life, pleasure, freedom of movement and a soft place to sit or rest your weary head. Nimoy’s book helped me remember that while I gazed at the images that graced it pages.

Go pick yourself up a copy and see what all the fuss is about.