Nature shots no match for naked models in cancer fund-raiser

Surprise, surprise. US photographer John Eichensehr's book of Asian female nudes, Oriental Eye, is selling like hotcakes.

The hardcover coffee-table tome features more than 60 black-and-white images captured across Asia and includes the sexy forms of models such as Mikki Yao, Rosemary Vandenbroucke, Eunice Chan Ka-yung, and Lisa Selesner.

However, Eichensehr (Ike to friends) is quick to mention that they are artistic photos and the idea came from publisher Corrado Riccio.

'I've been shooting nudes the past 12 years but it was Corrado who came up with the name and the Asian female focus. I've been lucky in that the girls view my work as more artistic and most are friends that I've worked with, so it is not so formal.

'To be honest, I've been shooting all kinds of stuff the past 20 years, including male nudes, scenic and nature stuff, but nobody wants to see those.'

Ike's motivation was partly charitable - 100 limited-edition copies, including digital versions of the works on CD-Rom, are for sale at HK$8,888, with proceeds going to the Hong Kong Cancer Fund.