Body in Mind : Galleries 3

The women in our lives

Most experts in the area of seduction will tell you that the surest way to make a woman feel good is to tell her that she's beautiful. And it's true - there doesn't seem to be a single woman in the world who doesn't love to hear it.

But there's another side to this dynamic that many experience first hand, but rarely identify or discuss. Some of the greatest joys of living with or being married to a women are the moments of marvellous beauty she creates just for you, inadvertently, combing her hair, moving gracefully around the house, or yawning and stretching in the morning.

It's funny. You can tell a woman she's beautiful to get her into your life, and once in your life, she gives you her beauty. Maybe this is why I've always been attracted to the women who seem capable of a lifelong romance. It's because I'm in it for the beauty, not just the sex, and I want beauty to last me a lifetime.

If you're like me you'll love the photographs of Manfred Baumann. He has a knack for capturing those elusive moments of beauty that women create simply by breathing, moving and living their lives with us. These are the moments that stay burned in men's brains for years, sometimes forever.

So will the photos of Manfred Baumann. Our latest gallery of his is full of images that capture as closely as is possible to we humans, those times when a woman's beauty is truly breathtaking - which is: when she's right there in front of you, naked.

See what we mean:

We're not addicted to cheesecake, really we're not...

The last couple of galleries from master cheesecake chef Victor Lindenborn have proven to be quite popular with our visitors, so here is our third.

We were tempted to say we've become addicted to his work when an announcement of a so-called 'scientific' discovery came to our attention. The discovery states that female beauty is nothing more than a male drug. We wrote a rebuttal to this nonsense here.

We are not addicted to female beauty any more than we are addicted to food. And neither are you. We can no sooner stop enjoying the sight of a lovely human woman exuding her adorable and delightful essence than we can give up eating or breathing, but no one would have the insolence to claim we were addicted to food or oxygen.

Those who equate a love of female beauty with a drug habit reveal the depravity in their own souls - a depravity that sees the most visibly glorious examples of humanity - beautiful women - as a drug, and thus mankind in general, as shameful, dirty drug addicts.

We do not. We love beautiful women because we love life and all of its potential. And we are thrilled to have been born human. Beauty brings out the best in us, not the worst. Beauty is not a drug, it is a necessity. And it is not an artificial stimulant, it is as real and wholesome as it gets.

See what we mean:

Body in Mind Exclusive: Blue Velvet

Why does everyone like velvet? What is it anyway? What's it made out of? Is it natural or man-made? How does it come to be used for everything from the capes of King's to cheesy paintings of Matadors with capes?

Velvet is soft. It's deep. It's dark. It's fun.

But most of all velvet is beautiful. Which is why it's so popular. In fact, in its blue variety it attracts every man, from Bobby Vinton to Dennis Hopper and every temperament in between.

Our latest gallery at Body in Mind represents a very important landmark to us, it's our first gallery of images from Tom Ruddock. Our favourites for a long time, Tom's Blue Nudes are to female beauty what velvet is to cloth. Absolutely everyone will find something they love. Here you will find outright superbeauty in an almost dizzying display of photographic virtuosity. In fact, Ruddock goes through artistic styles like many photographers go through film - and he's a master of them all.

You'll see what we mean in our exclusive gallery of his images as well as on his incredible website. We've spent 3 days going through his huge portfolio of work, and have selected what we believe to be the best images. As far as superbeauty goes, you will find some of the most gorgeous women that have ever existed on earth in these photos, and as far as Ruddock's genius goes, you stand a very good chance of finding your new favourite photo of all time among them.

Never miss another nude gallery again!

Too busy to check Body in Mind every day? For you, we've added an email update service to our site. It's a great way to keep up on gallery additions to Body in Mind without having to check every day. It's easy, free, and it includes free samples from the latest gallery. Click here to sign up.

More Cheesecake Anyone?

The great thing about cheesecake is no matter how much you eat, you always want more...

Our first gallery this month featured Victor Lindenborn's marvellous modern pin-up photos. We liked them so much, so does our second.

Modern Cheesecake

Like a farm orchard bursting with ripe fruit, or the sea swelling and exploding in love with its own freedom, or the sun smiling on everything and everybody, the ladies in the images of Austrian photographer Victor Lindenborn remind us of the greatest joy of childhood - seeing our first naked woman.

Not since we were kids have we seen such beautiful, bright, happy, sunny, playful, elegant, voluptuous ladies in scenes so carefully set in a universe full of benevolence, feminine poses, thoughtful composition, radiant lighting, natural drama, and 50's movie-star glamour.

Lindenborn, is a master of what is called 'cheesecake' or 'pin-up' photography. I mention this because for some reason, in the modern rush to 'own' the concept of beautiful women in beautiful pictures, many people have forgotten its orginal name, which is cheesecake. And its creators' dueful praises go unsung.

Cheesecake is completely unique, both in purpose and in nature, which may explain why so few people seem to recognize it.

The purpose of cheesecake is to create superlative images of superlative female beauty - not pornography, not fashion, not advertisements - but beauty, period. Not primarily meant to stimulate our bodies or our minds (although it always does both), cheesecake first moves our spirit and stimulates our soul. In its purest form, it gives us a vision of so great a loveliness that we must stare, and upon staring, become sun drunk with all the wondrous emotions - noble and pleasant - that female beauty allows us as human beings.

Only one thing can do this to us. Only those things dearest to us can make us feel so wonderful - only our deepest values can make us feel this way. Somehow, then, in cheesecake, our values must be involved.

To see exactly how, we must look to its origins. Cheesecake photographs have been around a long time and were being made long before Playboy, long before modern supermodels, and certainly long before the web and Body in Mind. It's the kind of image of nude women pioneered in the 40's and 50's by German and Scandinavian photographers in response to demand from American men's girlie, adventure, detective and pulp magazines. In America, perhaps the greatest creator of this type of image was photographer Bunny Yeager, whose images of Bettie Page are a legend, still popular with collectors today. They are images of a pretty woman who is extremely happy to be alive, happy to be a woman, and happy to be naked. They are set in what were for Bettie 'real-life' settings, such as at the beach, or on a boat, or in a field - settings which have unfortunately been copied a hundred thousand times by photographers who could not see that the appealing part of a location was not the specific scene insomuch as it was the fact that Bettie felt at home in it. Thus, what began as realistic shots of Bettie, today have become terribly un-realistic shots of supermodels rolling in the surf on late night TV.

To discover the secret power of cheesecake photography one has merely to look at the images Victor Lindenborn is creating today, not at what is being depicted, but at the feeling that is generated by that depiction. For example, his models, like Bettie Page before them, make us feel that they are happy and carefree, and more: they make us feel that way. Their happy abandon in the nude, revealing no awareness of shame, makes us feel free. And their generous smiles, when pointed right at us, makes us feel worthy of the love of one such as them.

Cheesecake achieves its beauty by capturing our values and projecting them back on us. It creates a scene that is so brilliantly full of our values - things we dearly need to live a life worth living, things like happiness, purpose, freedom, success, sexuality, thoughtfulness, self-esteem and romance - that it shines upon us like an explosion of white light.

This is the key to cheesecake: It is the inclusion of objective values that give cheesecake the power to achieve its purpose, which is quite simply, the creation of beauty. Beauty is the representation of our values, and nothing moves us more.

This is the unique nature of cheesecake, its defining characteristic. It has never been explicitly identified (until now), yet cheesecake photos of legendary beauty have been consistently achieved over the years, due only to the extremely benevolent sense of life, gifted eye, and loyalty to values of its creators.

This is the modern achievement, and the greatness, of Victor Lindenborn.

Victor's work has brought cheesecake back to life for us. Let them do the same for you. Here then is our latest hand-picked gallery of Victor's best images. Enjoy.