OK, so we already knew that Spock was cool (although I’m more into Star Wars myself - but I got respect for Vulcans). But Leonard Nimoy has just rocketed up the coolness-scale by like a zillion points.

Nimoy - an established and respected photographer - has been photographing plus size women in the nude for the past eight years.

You can see twelve of his other nude portraits (and much of his other photography) here, and a wonderful piece about his photography here.

Celebrating full-figured women has become one of Nimoy’s passions:

The average American woman, according to articles Ive read, weighs 25 percent more than the models who are showing the clothes they are being sold, Mr. Nimoy said, his breathing slightly labored by allergies and a mild case of emphysema. So, most women will not be able to look like those models. But theyre being presented with clothes, cosmetics, surgery, diet pills, diet programs, therapy, with the idea that they can aspire to look like those people. Its a big, big industry. Billions of dollars. And the cruelest part of it is that these women are being told, You dont look right. ”

Mr. Nimoy…admits that before he began this project, it had never occurred to him that beauty might be culture driven, that a fat body in Africa is treated quite differently from one in the United States. In some cultures their weight is a sign of affluence: their husbands can afford to feed them well, he noted.

Or, as you might put it: live long and prosper, ladies.

PS: Sorry for blogging so little lately - deadlines and my grandmother’s hospitalization have soaked up all my energy for the past month.