If you have ever looked at your body with loathing and wanted it to be more like the ones ‘in the magazines’ then listen up because I have something important to tell you-
All bodies are good bodies. It’s what makes us different from one another that makes us beautiful.
I know that makes you want to gag.
BUT BEFORE YOU STOP READING AND THINK THIS IS JUST A BUNCH OF FLUFFY CRAP JUST WAIT AND READ THIS-
I too thought that was the biggest pile of buuulllllsshitttt. I thought it for most of my life. It was just something that lazy people who didn’t want to work out or eat healthily or whatever said. I know, it’s shameful, but a lot of you probably think it too. Or maybe you only think it about yourself. (Sit with that for a second.)
The only things that REALLY changed my mind, and my lifelong hatred of my body, was picking up a camera and reading a lot of books about philosophy.
When I started to really SEE people through the lens of the philosophers and through my actual camera lens everything changed. I came to realize that all our different bodies (soul shacks) are just the Universe or God or whatever you want to call it in countless variations having fun (or not) here on Earth. Suddenly what all the philosophers and religions say about us all being part of the ONE or a bigger thingamabob made sense. So yeah, I had a come to Jesus moment. Except I came to the Universe and the Universe told me that I am and you are all LOVE. And I can’t unhear it.
Now every time I look at people it is like a visual FEAST.
When I’m at my other job and I’m looking around at all the people I can truthfully say that the chain-smoking crew guy is just a beautiful to me as the ensemble dancer who works out and is in top physical shape.
I look at you and see a beautiful soul inside of a beautiful body. I look at ALL of you and I see art. I see god. And I finally see god in myself. Which is perhaps the greatest revelation. Because if you can love yourself you’re one step closer to loving the world.
So do the world a favor and soften when you’re tempted to be critical. Try seeing yourself and others as an artist would.
Please don’t wait to do the photoshoot (or buy the lingerie or do all those things you keep putting off) until you’re in better shape or everything is ‘perfect’. You are already perfect just the way you are. You’re perfect if you go to the gym a lot. You’re perfect if you don’t. We are all deserving of a place on the wall in whatever shape our body is at all stages and phases of our lives. The real crime is not believing it until it’s too fucking late. Don’t wait so long that before you know it you’re looking back and realizing that you’ve spent your whole life trying to change yourself/hide yourself/being ashamed of yourself instead of just reveling in your own damn glory.
Exist loudly and lovingly, so others see that they can too.
That was a lot of woowoo shit, I know, but it’s my soapbox so I’m gonna keep saying what I have to say in the hopes that it will reach whoever really needs to hear it.
My shoot with Hannah was an exercise in restraint and play. I wanted to see what we could create just standing against a wall with minimal wardrobe. (This is hard for me, wardrobe is more, more, MORE in my eyes!) But since I can’t just…be boring I added colored light. And I had her wear a dress and then step into the shower so it would cling. Obviously, it turned out amazing! She looks like a sculpture brought to life. And I think that my colored images are just as strong and compelling as my black and whites, which has been something I’ve really been working at mastering. (A lot of people excel at one or the other, rarely both. It’s hard and takes honing and practice.)
So behold, a modern day Venus!
