A LOT OF people choose more conventional ways to raise money for cancer research, but American photographer Bob Carey has chosen something a bit different -wearing a pink tutu.

After his wife of 24 years was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003, Carey started the Tutu Project by donating a  picture of himself wearing a custom-made tutu to a fundraising event.

Carey says on his website that it all started as a bit of “a lark”, but the Tutu Project has taken him all over the world from Italy to Australia – and always photographed  in the tutu.

For the last nine years, Carey has been donning a pink tutu and nothing else on his hairy, un-buff chest, taking his self-portrait photos anywhere and everywhere – in the wilderness, a subway station and even Times Square.

Speaking to The Today Show in the US this week, Carey said:

I feel I am giving everything I have to these images

Carey says he has received inspirational messages from people all over the world saying that his photos have made them smile.

Time.com reports that Carey has taken more than 100 tutu pictures which he shoots himself on his tripod. All the prints are available for purchase and all go towards his goal of raising $150,000.

However the positive response the Tutu Project has received has spurred him to take the project further by producing a self-published book of his images.

The net proceeds of the book, entitled Ballerina, will go directly to breast cancer organisations in America.