My clients are awesome. I got a big hug from one today whose disc I dropped off :) and quite a few phonecalls from some satisfied customers this week! I love my job! But especially, I love helping us realize how beautiful we all are :)
An outtake from the “After the Rain” editorial in MOD Magazine :) working on some goodies for the next issue, can’t wait to show and tell! :)
Model: Jourdyn Alexis
Hair and Makeup: Shannon Phelps
Wardrobe: Carey Powers for Calapo Fashions
Wardrobe Stylist: Brandon Lamar Lewis
I wonder
Do crooked little girls grow into gnarled women
Knobby limbs curled defensively around frail body
Brittle brown trunk
Do crooked little girls grow into gnarled women
Do their leaves shrivel, crackle off splintered branches
At the mention of uproot
Does their bark grow thick
Prohibit pruning
Do crooked little girls grow into gnarled women
She kept two free
Held crumpled secret
Tucked amid the growth rings
Uncle touching wrong skin
She kept two free
Daddy would have murdered had
He learned years before
Do crooked little girls grow
Into gnarled women
Condom wrappers
scratch at young thighs
beneath cheap threadcount
A pillowcase tearsoaked with rhetorical questions
Do crooked little girls
grow into gnarled women
A rheumatoid forest
Perpetually awaiting autumn
So…last weekend was my first major boudoir-a-thon ;) and it went better than I could have ever imagined! I met with 18 amazing women and we had an amazing time laughing, sharing stories, and of course taking some fabulous photos!
Since I’ve launched my boudoir website, I’ve been met with ‘Oh! I didn’t know you shot boudoir! Let’s shoot!’ or ‘Whoa you shoot boudoir? Why?!! That’s weird…’ Both reactions are expected; I’ve been shooting boudoir on the sly for about two years now, but never really talked about it or blogged too much about it :)
For me, boudoir photography is about celebrating ourselves. Of course, a lot of my clients do it as a labor of love for their significant others, but during my sessions, I like to stress the importance of self-confidence. I feel like it’s so hard to be a woman sometimes. We’re constantly inundated with imagery in our society that tells us to be considered beautiful we have to be size 0 with no stretch marks, no laugh lines, a vision of perfection that exists only because of Photoshop. I’ll be honest, I constantly struggle with that notion. It’s an impossible ideal to live up to. Boudoir is my way of rebelling against that Sisyphean standard. It’s about giving back. It’s about giving.
We have to give ourselves more credit.
Whether you’re 120 lbs or 220 lbs, 25 or 55, you should look at yourself in the mirror, and know that you’re a beautiful, capable person, worthy of love and respect, because you give it. If you have stretch marks, celebrate them; it’s an indicator of growth (and we all have them). If you made changes in your lifestyle, embrace it. Find your power in your gaze, strength in your smile. You are stronger than you know. Learn to love your good parts, and accept the not-so-good parts. Every one of us has something beautiful about ourselves.
Boudoir is more than a photoshoot for me, it’s about learning to love the skin you’re in.
Okay, stepping off my soapbox, just felt like rambling this morning :)
Oh, and special special thanks to Shanai of SD Luxuri, an amazing hair stylist and makeup artist, and Angel of School of Seduction, I couldn’t have done this without you, ladies! :)
I shot quite a lot of boudoir this past weekend in Atlanta…18 different sessions to be exact :) phew! More of an update later this week!
Check out a feature on the awesome gallery I’m represented by :) Arnika Dawkins Gallery on Art Relish!
Boudoir is empowering. :) Embrace your sexy.
I think I could listen to this song all day every day…
Olori Swank, throwback classic, September 2011. We shot realfastrealquick and later that day I hopped on a plane to HK (for really real). She’s a ridiculously talented stylist and all around awesome person to be around and we got some THANGS IN THE WORKS. Stay tuned! :)
I miss this place.
