How a photoshoot can change your life...
A photoshoot with me can change your life. Yea, that's a bold claim. And yes, I mean it. So, let's backtrack a little. I have been doing this work (photography) for over 10 years now. I've dabbled in all different genres, but in 2020 I secured a studio space & decided to do more boudoir work. That work led me to become more active in the private group I had created to be able to share this work with women who might be interested in a session. Within this group, we started generating conversations about the struggle with self-love & body image. And the conversations became deeper and deeper. This wasn't one or two women claiming that they didn't love the body they were in. This was hundreds of women sharing how they had started to believe in their unworthiness, whether it was around their confidence, body image, self-worth, or what they thought they could do in life.
Those conversations led to an idea for a project in the spring of 2021 that changed everything. I decided to launch the body-positive project & invite women to come into the studio- allow me to capture them in nude underwear and celebrate their bodies. With the goal to truly celebrate how amazing the female body is, in all shapes, colors, sizes, scars, and bodies that had seen trauma. That they all deserved to be seen as beautiful. I wanted it to start a conversation about how worthy women are- no matter what shape they were. And the response was incredible. Over 70 women applied & wanted to take part in this idea and conversation. Which was incredible. I was blown out of the water. In the end, I believe we selected about 20-25 women to do this first project with. We scheduled their sessions, ordered their nude underwear, and came up with an idea of how to run the sessions. But quickly, and I do mean quickly, these sessions took a much deeper and more powerful turn. Suddenly the conversations when they would come in no longer only revolved around their bellies, rolls, thighs, hair, etc... it got deeper. Much much deeper. And we started to uncover that beneath the body image issues were limiting beliefs. We uncovered lies that these women had started to believe. Some of them realized they had been told they were "too loud" their entire lives, which caused them to live smaller. Try not to be too opinionated, or take up too much space. They were shaming themselves as a parent, a wife, sister, daughter, and friend. The roots of so much of what led them to feel insecure and find fault in themselves had less to do with their appearance and more to do with these incredibly heavy expectations, beliefs, society, and hurt that had been put on them throughout their lives.
I immediately shifted my approach to these sessions and incorporated an idea- let's write these lies on your body. Let's write the negative words you say about yourself on your body. Because, if you wore this, physically, so you could see it. It would sit with you differently. And it did. It does. Every one of these sessions was emotional. Hearing these women get so vulnerable and share more about what had caused them to love themselves less, was heartbreaking. But truth? This is what far too many women are starting to unpack. They're realizing all of the ways they've held themselves back. Kept quiet, and played small. Giving away their power or their voice. They start to believe they aren't loveable because they believe that the only way to be loveable is to look a certain way. Or act a certain way. We start to believe that we take up too much space if we have ideas. We start to believe we are bitches if we have boundaries. Because everywhere we turn- we are told how what we do is wrong, not enough, or how we should be doing it better. I realized at that moment, we needed to do SOMETHING to release these lies, this pain. I couldn't just let this be about their bodies. I needed to honor all parts of this struggle. So, we wrote all of it. And then we covered their words in gold or wiped them off as we said empowering statements and released these lies. And we cried. This act of wiping away those lies as we spoke empowerment to them, ignited something. In all of us.
Then we danced. We danced. And we celebrated with gorgeous images.
The feedback I've gotten from the women who joined me on that initial project has been incredible. In that simple session, so many women were able to release decades of negative beliefs that had been attached to them. For some, it started their healing journey. For others- they continue to work with me to this day and have come back for more sessions.
After that project, a fire awoke within me. And I dedicated the next year and a half to learning, taking courses, getting certified in Reiki, Coaching, Shadow Work, Energy work, and learning more and more about trauma, etc... because I saw something. I saw the power I had, the power I could co-create with women in a photoshoot. There was something there that I couldn't put my finger on. But I knew I felt called to walk the path of my own healing- explore different ways to do that. Learn how to release things, so that I could bring that to what I do.
Art can help heal you. Expressing yourself in this way can heal you.
And now, in 2023 it's time to let this idea fully blossom. I just launched a model call to find women to help me showcase this idea, but I've crafted a photo shoot that will cater specifically to help you dismantle limiting beliefs. To see yourself in a way maybe you haven't for a while. We are going to heal through the power of art. We are going to fucking LOVE ourselves. I cannot wait to share more about what these sessions become this year. And the work that will be developed throughout them. This is something that will evolve. This is something that will be powerful. Fun. & change lives. And most importantly...