We all have our own perspectives on beauty. However, I think we can all agree that women have, on the whole, a rather negative view of themselves…This is certainly the case for many of the women who we meet every day in our studio, who, when asked, can scarcely come up with even one thing they like about their physical appearance.
According to Dove’s global 2016 Body image study, “a staggering 89 per cent of Australian women are opting to cancel plans, job interviews or other important engagements simply because of how they look.”
This comes as little to no surprise, when I consider that it took me over two years to finally bite the bullet and do my very own boudoir shoot… I can imagine that many of our clients have come close to not coming in for the very same reason. But why do we feel this way about ourselves? When reading further into the article, it cited that some of the strong contributors towards the problem were, “growing pressure from the media …“unrealistic standards” set by media and advertising”. No surprises there, then.
Women are literally hiding away because of how they feel about themselves! The problem has gotten to the point where women are actually removing themselves from important life experiences, because they don’t feel they measure up to what are basically fictionalised body standards. Is anyone else having to physically push their jaw back up reading this?
If women are to succeed in their personal lives, as well as a collective in history, then they must be given the opportunity to see and feel their worth.
We need to start showing up ladies; we need to be at the job interview, at that engagement party, at our kids swimming class, we need an automatic RSVP to EVERYTHING. We need to be there, and we need to feel like we deserve to be there, because we do. You do.
The biggest reason we love what we do as professional photographers, is because we see and transform women into their own ideal. Our perspectives on beauty are simple: all women are beautiful, all women deserve to feel beautiful, and all women deserve to take that self image home with them!
Nothing inspires us more as artists or human beings than showing real, everyday women that they are beautiful and that they are their own standard. In our studio, we are changing the way that women see themselves everyday, and we’re doing it by tailoring our photo shoots and makeovers to the women who come in, and they come from all walks of life!
This year we were also proud to release our very own style guide to help our clients discover and appreciate their body shape and to help them find their perfect lingerie match. Because our body shapes are as unique as our colouring, personalities and lifestyles, it felt right to shed some light on how to get the most out of your lingerie – and we found that our clients have discovered a new appreciation for their bodies, too! Many of them realised that they just weren’t dressing for themselves, and it made a huge different to how they felt during their photo shoots and when seeing their images.
There are lots of things that we can be doing to improve our self image, but I can’t think of anything as profound and immediate as having a photo shoot.
If there’s one thing that a photograph says, it’s “I was here”, and we like to think that we’re developing that into “I was here AND I am beautiful”.