VISION
It’s been my passion, my intuition, my vision, my desire, my obsession, and my quest to reveal and showcase ageless beauty of women over 40 to make us all more visible. Using my camera as a therapeutic tool and instrument of social commentary, I have attempted to capture, something raw and refined, edgy and elegant, honest and pure. Naked portraits of strong women who dare to step out of their comfort zone are finally here.
It’s been fun.
It’s been 7 years.
It’s been a challenge, with a steep learning curve.
It’s been an auspicious journey filled with extraordinary encounters and exceptional women. It’s been a time for creating new friendships, a time of mixed emotions, and a time of change and transformation. It’s not easy to stop at 121 photos…there are always new faces and new encounters worth capturing but I don’t want to lose momentum. I AM is ready.
Presenting…the divine feminine figure of the 21st century. She is very much alive and on the rise. I have witnessed her transformation throughout this amazing creative journey. I AM in awe of her and I AM a part of her.
We, meaning the women over 40, who are ready to own their sensuality without being sexualized, stand naked and bare it all. There is no judgement involved in how our bodies look when we see into each other’s souls. We accept that we are all goddesses.
We are so much more than our bodies. We can celebrate our pasts, nourish our present selves and relish what our futures will hold.
So, is it controversial to pose NUDE? Yes, of course! But what’s wrong with being controversial? Maybe it is for the best! I will leave it up to you.
When I started my career in Germany at age 23, being a female photographer was a relatively rare occurrence. At 28, I decided to move to Paris to gain more international experience. There I learned more important techniques that enabled me to produce many editorial spreads for fashion magazines and campaigns for advertising agencies.
Over time I began to notice the absence of older women in the advertisements and images we were creating. Facial cream, for example targeting women over 50 or 60, was shot with models in their 30’s and still retouched in post-production to create “the perfect” image. Who did this benefit? What image does it infiltrate in our subconsciousness? Surely not the “real” consumer who could sometimes be plagued with feelings of self- doubt or feel subjected to body shaming. I knew “real” women could never look like a cosmetically altered photo-shopped model. Nor should they try.
Despite the fact that we were well past the sexual revolution and the women’s rights movement, I started to wonder whether our fashion magazines were still in the dark ages, treating the everyday mature woman as an aberration. This idea percolated inside for a long time. In the meantime, I had passed my 40’s, I was happily married with two beautiful children. Yes, I had become one of the forgotten women. And I knew it was time for me to dedicate more time to photographing these women.
My first thought was to capture these women with only natural or no makeup and celebrate different ages, sizes, shapes, and ethnicities. I wanted these women to be unencumbered by societies norms and I wanted them to be able to see themselves as beautiful. The concept of photographing these women naked was partly to challenge the women but also to challenge myself.
I was hoping to strip away all of the make-believe notions of women being perfect, and strip away all the useless insecurities women have imposed on themselves. I had my camera to guide me, and I followed my intuition.
Slowly I discovered that I was creating a safe place for many women who desperately wanted to celebrate their imperfect perfect selves.
During this journey, I have learned as much about myself as I have learned about these women. And I am happy to report, the perfect imperfect woman was born: she is an honest, fearless and ageless beauty, in all her divine diversity.
I believe we are more than how our bodies look in a photograph. Witness the 121 women, and hundred and twenty-one, I AM statements.
Powerful individual voices that are unashamed and fearless.