"Working in the media business, I saw what it is doing to young girls and the messages it is sending [about beauty]," said Black, who is a photographer.
After Black met his wife, Chris Linnares, she went on a speaking tour around North Dakota and the project began.
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Black and Linnares, Fargo residents, placed advertisements in newspapers around the state just more than a year ago and received letters, videos and other nominations about beautiful women.
The core of the project is showing how these women have made the world a better place, Black said.
Out of the nominations, a panel of five selected 22 women for a book called "Beautiful Women of North Dakota." Wahpeton's Karen Engstrom is one of these women. Her husband Perry nominated her.
"I didn't believe it. I thought 'why me?'" Engstrom said. "There's gotta be a lot of wonderful people in this state and I was just overwhelmed."
Black and Linnares traveled North Dakota to interview and photograph the women and found some amazing stories.
These will be officially released in the book Saturday, Nov. 21 at the Rourke Art Museum in Moorhead, Minn. All 22 women will get the red carpet treatment — hair and make-up, a limo ride to the event, their pictures will be on showcase and more. The books and photos will be available for purchase that evening as well.
"We don't see women like Karen in the magazines," Linnares said. "Women like Karen are the kind of women we want our daughters to hear about and learn about. We want them to say, 'Why are they in the newspaper?' And we want to be able to say, 'Because she did so much in this world to make the world a beautiful place.'"
Ronda Stock wrote on Nov 6, 2009 7:57 AM: