Who knew? What a brilliant idea! I am fairly certain I would have lived at this place as a kid… if it were near me,I still might!...

Thank you grandpa, originally uploaded by Leen…. Another lovely illustration by Aileene Posada. What a gift she has. Thank you, Aileen’s grandpa for giving her a love for books and thank you Aileen for giving the world this lovely art!...

Home sweet home, originally uploaded by Leen…. Could this *be* anymore perfect? Via Flickr: Lápiz editado. By: Leen (All rights reserved by original artist: Aileen...

A friend took part in the 4am Project in Birmingham, UK over the past weekend. And he was kind of enough to share some of his work with me to share here.   The press release about the 4am Project: 4am Photographers to get Brutal in Birmingham’s Central Library Birmingham photographers with mild insomnia and an eye for the unusual will have the unique opportunity to play their part in an innovative global project to record and document the world before dawn and take part in this years 4am Project Tour. The 4am Project, a worldwide community experience, takes place on Sunday 24 April 2011 and aims to capture a time of day that many people rarely see. Brainchild of UK photographer Karen Strunks, and building on the ever growing phenomenon of social media, the 4am Project is an exercise in global solidarity to encourage the sharing of visual imagery that reflects the world we live in. Alongside the 4am Project each year runs a curated 4am Project Tour providing photographers with exclusive access to unique and wonderful locations. This year in conjunction with Project Brutal the 4am Project Tour comes to iconic Birmingham’s Central Library and will allow photographers entry into the library and also exclusive access to some truly magical and breathtaking areas not seen by the public. With the brutalist library currently on course for demolition [ http://bit.ly/eW7OPN ] this years 4am Project Tour will provide a final chance for people to capture and celebrate this truly iconic building. Tickets for the 4am Project Tour will be made available via eventbrite on Thursday 24th at 11am. Spaces are limited to 50, and will be allocated on a first served basis. http://4amprojectbirmingham.eventbrite.com/ Partnering with the 4am Project Tour this year is Project Brutal which works to curate and encourage creative projects and events that capture Birmingham’s Brutal Central Library before it’s proposed demolition. Co-ordinator for the 4am Project, Karen Strunks, is adamant 4am can often be a beautiful time of day. “I live in Birmingham – the UK’s second largest city – and after a night out a while back, I was driving from one side of the city to the other. It was around 4am and...

Someone brave and beautiful came up with an ingenious idea for a book, one I think is long overdue. This book is called, I’ll Show You Mine, and it is a book that shows real women parts. The original description, “I’ll Show You Mine” is a photo study of female genitalia and a window into women’s experiences of their genitals. The book contains 120 photographs of 60 women, with all women photographed from the same two positions. Each woman was photographed in exactly the same conditions and the photos are shown in the book in true-to-life size and color, as this is the best method to accurately display the diversity of female form. Accompanying each woman’s photos is text written by the woman, detailing her challenges and/or successes as pertains to her relationship with her genitals. The photos in the book demonstrate and celebrate the wonderful diversity of the vulva; the stories illuminate the range of experiences that women have relating to the genitals in a world where mass media and pornography increasingly set the standards for sexuality and the look of all body parts, even our genitals.1 More from the Vancouver Sun, Meant as an educational resource, the book’s creators say they hope it will help counteract the pervasiveness among youth of pornography, which they say “sets the standard for what female genitalia looks like.” The book is not intended as erotica or as art, the publisher said. According to a 2007 University of Alberta study, 90 per cent of teenage boys and 70 per cent of teenage girls said they had seen sexually explicit content on the Internet at least once. One-third of the boys went on to say they had watched pornographic films “too many times to count.” And experts carrying out research at King’s College in the U.K. suggest that the “pornification” of modern culture may actually be driving up genitalia cosmetic surgery rates. (Excerpt from http://www.vancouversun.com/Vagina+picture+book+realeased+Vancouver+Show+Books/4396770/story.html#ixzz1FwwSJVDg) You can order the book here. http://www.showoffbooks.com/products/ill-show-you-mine...