Pink shows off her belly in her own gorgeous photo

Wow. I just fell in love with Pink.

Tired of having unflattering photographs (like this) taken of her during pregnancy by the paparazzi, Pink has hit back with her own gorgeous pregnancy photo (above) that she uploaded to her Twitter feed this week saying:

"ALRIGHT... because paparazzi of today have absolutely no photograhic skill or artistry whatsoever, and their pictures are hideous...."

Gotta love the fact that 1) she screwed the tabloids out of money from photo sales and 2) she has taken control of the documentation of her pregnancy. WIN!

Claudia Schiffer bares all for German Vogue

Supermodel Claudia Schiffer is naked and pregnant for the June issue of German Vogue. Shot by Karl Lagerfeld, the photo is reminiscent of Demi Moore's 1991 Vanity Fair cover photo taken by Annie Leibowitz. Schiffer turned 40 this year and the entire issue of the magazine is dedicated to her. She's featured in a number of 'controversial' shots in the centre spread as a pregnant nun and a dominatrix. She says:

"I’m a lot more self-confident than I used to be. To some extent I owe that to my children and my husband. I know what I’m doing and what I want. I have control over myself and that feels good.

"I’ve never hidden the fact that I used to be shy, even when I was 30. However, I might have been self-conscious on the inside, but I was never inhibited about my body. I never had a problem with stripping in front of the camera. Maybe that’s because of how I grew up. Back home we never used to knock at the bathroom door. No, I’ve never been prudish."

Schiffer gave birth last month to her third child, Cosima.

K.Wilkinson preggo photo shoot

You can take the girl out of Playboy, but you can't take Playboy outta the girl.

“I’ve been hornier! We’ll be off-roading, and we’ll go at it in the bushes somewhere! Or we’ll be driving, and he’ll pull over. Quickies are the best! If he lasts any more than a couple of minutes, I’m like, ‘I’m done!’ I’m not joking: I’ll stop.”

Tokyo preggos go nude

It's hard to believe that back in 2006, the image of Britney 'doing a Demi' for Harper's Bazaar was actually banned from display in Tokyo subway stations for being 'too stimulating'. A censored version with a big black band hovering over Brit's bump was used instead.

Being naked and pregnant, however, has suddenly become more popular with Japanese women. Apparently, a Japanese pop star called Hitomi posed naked and pregnant in an album photo in June 2008. According to local media, the picture was displayed on large billboards over busy streets in Tokyo and the related photo book became a bestseller, selling more than 10,000 copies in its first week of publication.

Now mums-to-be pay around 35,000 yen ($368.20) for a studio photo shoot, which takes less than two hours in "Ixchel."

"Before this boom, women didn't know where to go to take these kinds of pictures even though they wanted to. Because of media attention, they easily found our studio," said Natsuko Takada, the owner of photo studio "Ixchel."

This is really interesting because when I was in Tokyo in January 2007 I found absolutely no images of Japanese pregnant women who were showing skin. Maternity clothes were really dowdy and all of the parenting/pregnancy magazines targeted to young women used cartoons and other really childish images to talk about being a mother. Being a 'sexy' mum was definitely not culturally appropriate. Interestingly, as I noted in a post at the time, the only images of motherhood that were even remotely 'racy' were of Euro-American pregnant models.

Stuck in a moment

Over at Pacing the Panic Room, a baby girl has been born. A little while back, I wrote about this awesome dad for chronicling his partner's pregnancy with absolutely gorgeous photos. He snapped her feeling a first contraction as they were doing their weekly photo.

Precious.

Ana Ortiz: baby bump photo shoot

Ugly Betty's Ana Ortiz posed for a pregnancy photo shoot with celebrity preggo photog, Jennifer Loomis. You can check out the video of her shoot at Entertainment Tonight.

"She's got a whole vision, she can see the picture as a whole it's great," Ana says about working with Jennifer. "I feel totally confident that she sees the whole picture and I don't have to worry about that. I can just let it go and let her do the work, and me just sort of have fun."

Motherhood in pictures through a father's eyes

I just came across an adorable and thoughtful blog from a man who has been documenting his wife's pregnancy with photos and lovely captions. He's a professional photographer so unlike most preggo side-on snapshots from the rest of us amateurs with cut-off heads and blurry backgrounds, his snaps are gorgeous and his wife has incredibly chic outfits.

Pregnant pictures

I just came across the work of a Chicago photographer who is documenting pregnancy with more than just images. Claude-Aline Nazaire, founder of Essential Blueprints, photographs women over their entire pregnancy in order to capture the shape of motherhood. According to a recent article about the company in the Chicago Sun-Times:

"A photo journal from her company, Essential Blueprints, costs $1,500 to $3,000, but mothers-to-be get the full treatment from Nazaire. She sets up photo sessions, both at her sun-filled studio in the Fine Arts Building and at clients’ homes, to trace the woman’s changing body; she conducts interviews for a DVD; she requests periodic journal entries; she photographs the family once the baby is born, and she incorporates it all — even ultrasounds — into a scrapbook, bound in Italy".

Nazaire started the company as a result of the death of her sister's 2 week old daughter realising that her sister was without very many memories of the baby's short life.

Nazaire thinks it’s important that women slow down to be “present” in pregnancy. “You’re transforming from a woman to a mother,” she says. “This is your time.”

I'm extremely interested in this business because it so closely models what I do in my work; asking women to reflect on their changing bodies at a time when most women do not have the opportunity to really speak candidly about being pregnant. As opposed to just having a few images to document maternity, this is an opportunity for women to create a sort of 'living' journal...

Sources: www.essentialblueprints.com
http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/579234,cst-ftr-lifephotog28.article#