About

The Project

Thank you for being here. The Nu Project is a series of honest nudes of women from all over the world. The project began in 2005 and has stayed true to the original vision: no professional models, minimal makeup and no glamour. The focus of the project has been and continues to be the subjects and their personalities, spaces, insecurities and quirks.

To date, over 300 women across North America, South America and Europe have participated in the project. Without their courage, confidence and trust, none of this would have been possible. We are so thankful for their willingness to open their homes to us.

If you’d like to sign up for a shoot, please visit the participation page for more information. If you’d like more information about our first two books, Beauty in Every Body Vol 1 + 2, check out our bookstore!

The Creators

Matt Blum is a software engineer + freelance photographer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work has been published in The Washington Post, Slate, The Huffington Post and The Daily Mail, to name a few. When not shooting for the Nu Project, Matt shoots for private clients or types long strings of characters into a computer in order to make it do fancy things. Matt is married to Katy.

Katy Kessler is a professional funny person specializing in improv and sketch comedy. She selects all of the final images for the Nu Project and wrote most of the copy on the site. When not working with photography or branding, she enjoys making yarn sculptures of her and Matt’s three cats.

Both Matt and Katy came to adulthood by way of some body and food and self-image issues. (Nothing shocking there, of course. We are Americans, after all.) What makes this project resonate with Matt and Katy is how many participants reach out to say they feel empowered/proud/beautiful/confident after seeing the images from their session.

Matt and Katy live and work together in Minneapolis with their two wonderful children, but they travel worldwide with this project and for their own client work. They are very proud of this work, and hope that you enjoy it.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Did This Project Start?

Matt began shooting in 2005 but didn’t fully realize the form the project was taking until Katy became project editor and encouraged him to show more light-hearted images. Once we started working together, Matt began to shoot where the participants are most comfortable–in their homes–which also allows for greater variety of expressions and emotion in the work.

Why aren’t there more _______ women included?

This is the most common question we get. We would love the project to be more diverse! The project is 100% volunteer, and Matt does not see the women until he shows up at their door. We’re doing our best to encourage all types of women, but we need volunteers of all backgrounds and walks of life to make the project more complete. Since our shoots in NYC in September of 2013 we’ve seen a great increase in the amount of diversity amongst our volunteers. We hope this trend continues!

Why are you saying “women” specifically? Do you know it’s 2026 and gender is complicated and a spectrum?

Why yes, thank you for asking. We do absolutely understand that ‘woman’ doesn’t fully represent every participant in The Nu Project. There are non-binary participants, trans-masc participants, and many with Big They energy, therefore the definition is incomplete. It felt weird to say “anyone but cis dudes may apply” so that’s what we went with in 2005.

Are you ever going to shoot with men?

This is the second most common question we get. While we understand there is a lot of pressure on men to look a certain way, we believe that non-cis-men are judged more harshly by appearance, and that’s why we’ve focused this project on women (and occasionally their male partners). We hope that there are other photographers out there who want to take on documenting men and address the body image pressure they feel (big love to the twinks).

Why do you have to be 21 to participate when 18 is the legal age of adulthood?

We have set the minimum age of our participants at 21 because we want the experience of being a Nu Project model to be a positive one for us and the participant. At the age of 18 sometimes people make decisions that, later in life, they wish they hadn’t. Also, we’re not comfortable working with women that young.

Will you come to my country / city?

We will if there’s enough interest! Part of the way we decide where we’re going to travel each year is by the number of participation requests we receive from a given area. The best way to make sure we visit you is to sign up to participate and spread the word to encourage your friends to do the same.

What camera and lenses do you shoot with for this project?

Our personal philosophy is that the equipment doesn’t make or break the shoot, but we use a 5D III and 16-35mm 2.8 L, 50mm 1.2 L and the 85mm 1.2 L.

Have you/would you ever consider photographing pregnant women as part of this project?

Absolutely we have, and continue to work with women at all stages of life (after age 21). We know the timing can be difficult but if an un-model indicates she is pregnant on the sign-up form we do our best to do the shoot before she gives birth!

If you’d like to know more there’s a pretty good chance someone asked the question during our first Ask Me Anything on Reddit. Take a look at the discussion and if you can’t find an answer to your question, leave a comment and we’ll get right back to you! Thank you for your interest in The Nu Project.