The book on the project Simple Beauty 

You can see some example pages of the photo book in the gallery.

It collects the best pictures of this project, which lasted more than 3 years and during which more than 10,000 pictures of naked women were taken, on the search for inner and particular beauty. Fifty real women in the nude, not professionals, models for just one day and often for the first time, who posed to receive three pictures, with the only goal of having an extraordinary experience.

The women weighted from a hundred to a hundred and fifty pounds, they were from five to six feet tall, their ages ranged from nineteen to forty. These are the statistics of "Semplice Bellezza", which I wasn't even keen to reveal. Reason being, they mean nothing to me, rather I consider them to be misleading. This is true also because they were not the result of choice, but what I happened to shoot. I believe numbers do not matter when it comes to beauty; it doesn't matter the size, age, or weight. There is no single way of being beautiful.

I realised that despite the images' expressiveness, they could not tell everything of this experience. They didn't completely express what it meant for a non-model to pose in front of a photographer. That's why I asked the models to write their thoughts down. I found it amazing that, for the majority of them, posing was an important step forward in the complex relationship with their own body.

"Semplice Bellezza - Fifty Real Women in the Nude"
176 pages
146 duotone images
Dimensions (in inches): 0.78 x 13.00 x 9.45; (in cm) 2 x 33 x 24;
Hardcover
Price: Euro 49,00 (72 $)

Now available only on the Internet at the discounted price of 44.00 Euro (65 $) plus shipping and handling.

For order please click the button below, Paypal is a safe method to buy online.

For further information:

Axel M. Cipollini
Oltremare
via Belpoggio 3
34123 Trieste
Italia
tel-fax +39 (O)40 304410
http://www.axelcipollini.com
email: info@axelcipollini.com

Simple Beauty - A project by the Italian photographer Axel M. Cipollini dedicated to the beauty of all those women who do not live on their beauty; they are portrayed naturally, with no complex make-up or image processing, no special setting, accessories or clothing. Photography, beauty, and women, it seems a truism on which there’s no longer anything to say. All the more so by means of overexploited nudes.But is it really so? It is a fascinating topic; we all believe we can recognize beauty, although it is not measurable. The models proposed on women's magazines today are very different from those of, say, thirty years ago; does this mean that what was considered beautiful just a little time ago is no longer so? Are there canons of beauty which go beyond fashion?

What is it that makes a woman beautiful? Is it fair to consider models and actresses the only ones entitled to represent female beauty? Semplice Bellezza was conceived with these questions in mind and aims to show a kind of beauty that is different from the one which is usually proposed to all of us. How? With a series of nudes and portraits of common women, women who do not work with their beauty and who are not used to posing in front of the camera.

A book of photographs dedicated to women’s natural beauty: portraits and nudes or, rather, “nude portraits”. Starring in this book are normal women, those we meet everyday, at work or in the street. At first glance this idea may not sound interesting, as magazines, advertising and calendars are filled with pictures of more or less clothed women, actresses, models and showgirls. Still I have the impression that these images often show just one side of beauty, a side that follows a momentary fashion and according to which beauty is defined by a precise set of canons. The tragedy is that we all end by believing it is true: few women feel really beautiful, plastic surgery flourishes as does the craze for diets. Beauty surrounds us and we do not even realize it, you don’t need elaborate make-up or image processing to bring it out.

This is where the project comes from: portraying female beauty I meet everyday, trying to do it in the simplest and most essential way, without special settings or elaborate processing. It is not always easy, as it is often hard to overcome people's natural mistrust, especially of those I have just met and asked to pose for me (and my shyness is not of any help).It is not always easy to make a model feel at ease as well.
But then everything miraculously fits into place and I have the feeling that the results are worth the effort. More important still, the women I have portraied liked their photographs, and I believe they also feel a bit more confident concerning their beauty.

I shall be glad to receive your comments. And models too.