Namaste Friends, I hope this finds you well and using your energy to find all the ways you can, to thrive in this rapidly changing world.
This album (2 of 12 to date) reflects the realization that I could use my body to express myself through images, and that nudity enhanced or expanded what i could say, as did new photographic skills, accessorizing, and better equipment, my storytelling tools.
This is me coming home, and re-discovering a sense of confidence in my own skin. This is when I realized my body was beautiful, and not the horrid, defective, source of betrayal I had come to regard it as being. I had tried to make myself believe it before, with some success, however this is me capturing a newfound love of my whole self, my image, my body, my ability to capture what I was feeling; and my courage for trying to do so.
This is me realizing I could be whoever I wanted to be, that I didn’t have to be who I’d been told I was; too loud and smart to be ignored but too young and pretty to be taken seriously. Thighs and butt too big and lumpy to be sexy, but a face and smile to draw a crowd. A body not good enough for commercial purposes, a mind too quick to be contained. I am grateful they dared suggest my irrelevance, the slap in the face woke me up. This is me realising they don’t get to sideline me in my own life.
This is my story to tell.
I felt alive, free, playful, and exuberant. I was breathing in the world as it turned its monolithic head, and glanced at me. A nod , a sign post to indicate I was heading in the right direction.
There was a sense of something coming out and showing itself to the world, I was overcoming beliefs about my body that I learned in my formative years, comparisons made, unhelpful, critical comments, sexist inappropriate, unnecessary remarks. I see now how they made their insecurities mine.
Well fuck them.
I am taking back my body.
My right to live as I please.
I take back my sovereignty and the right to write my own story, to reject their criticisms and their perspectives of me. I will not doubt myself like that again.
This gallery is a reflection of the moments in which I started to really see my self.
This gallery is a reflection of the moments in which I started to really believe in myself.
In these moments I started to fully love myself again, and through this process I began to transcend.
To a place more peaceful than where I had been.
A place where I could lay the pieces of myself out and see them in a way they’d never been seen.
In these moments of deep reflection, I started to make sense of my self, for myself.
Walk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.
Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Bring the Earth your love and happiness.
The Earth will be safe
when we feel safe in ourselves.
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
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May you be happy, healthy and free from suffering.
Namaste.
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