002_cow_ballerina_finalIf you start from the premise that photography is art, then photographers are artists; and if photographers are artists, then some of them are eccentric artists. This certainly describes Bob Carey, a Brooklyn photographer. During 2003, he started posing for a series of “self-portraits” in nothing but a pink ballet tutu to support the fight against breast cancer, of which his wife suffers.

The so-called Tutu Project started as a bit of eccentric hilarity when Carey shot the first photo of himself in a tutu after he had completed a ballet-related assignment.

Since then, Carey includes the tutu (and a pair of pink shorts, so he isn’t arrested for indecent exposure) as part of his camera equipment whenever he travels for a commercial photography project. Locations for his tutu-clad portraits include a ferryboat ride to Delaware, Atlantic City and Times Square.

Carey has shot enough images of his “pink person” to publish a book, the proceeds of which he donates to small cancer groups. The book can be ordered and additional donations made at his Web site, www.thetutuproject.com.

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