When I approached Harper's Bazaar about doing a nude photo shoot to show the diversity of beauty and a variety of body types, what I didn't know was how the women we approached would react. They said yes, then no, then maybe, then yes again, then would see the image and change their minds again, then hear that a certain woman was involved, which was when we got the big no, not if she's in it! I was struck again by how utterly complex a woman's relationship to her body is and how competitive women are with each other.
From 12-year-old girls to 70-year-old matriarchs, I know hundreds of women who have some sort of body image issue. This is sad and seriously worrying, but it's true and it's why I feel some kind of social responsibility to do what I can to show a variety of body types in fashion magazines. Not just skinny girls or white girls. And the only way to achieve this was for all the participants to agree to no retouching and I mean none.
I am one of the last photographers to convert to digital. I've been successfully shooting on film for over ten years and am known for doing minimal retouching, so I was particularly well qualified for this shoot.
Our hope in doing this nude story was to give women some other shapes, sizes and colors to identify with and to make the point that whatever your healthy body type is, it's best to learn to live with it because it isn't going anywhere. And the hours, days, and years of wishing and forcing your body to be something it's not takes up a lot of energy, time and focus.
As I sit here with at least two rolls of belly flesh hanging down, one of the lasting gifts of having been pregnant with twins, I can assure you that maintaining self esteem is no easy task. I've often contemplated some kind of tummy tuck surgery but I know this is not the answer.
I'd personally like to see more "real bodies" in magazines. The more I photograph plus-sized models like Crystal Renn, the better I feel about my own curves. The debate about whether the Bazaar story was retouched or not is really just an indirect way of saying, "who can look that good without Photoshop help?" Well, Kim Kardashian and Joy Bryant can. They look as good as the image you see on the page, because those images weren't retouched one little bit.
In all honesty, I am fully against extensive alteration of images as that is a totally unrealistic representation of a person, and no one, not even the subject themselves can truly live up to that. Photoshop is an amazing tool when used with discretion, but not when used to create some "ideal woman" with flawless skin, no cellulite, long lean legs, a flat belly and a perfect smile. Only Barbie looks like that -- not real women in real life -- so let's not perpetuate that foolish myth.
See the full Harper's Bazaar shoot here.
Follow Amanda de Cadenet on Twitter: www.twitter.com/amandadecadenet
So who does? Well, if Bravo can be considered a reliable source of information, it’s the gay men who seem to dominate the fashion industry. If that’s true (and I don’t know that it is) perhaps the reason men and women are so confused about what we are supposed to find attractive or sexually appealing in women, is because it’s being dictated in large part, by the one segment of society that has no vested interest in it.
Discuss.
Oh, and Amanda, I’m with Nebris – big crush.
This reminds me of the Dove "Campaign for Real Beauty" which went through months of casting to put "real" women in their ads, only to airbrush them and pick ones who were "perfectly curvy". Most of them a little heavy with proportioned weight. Let them put a photo of my mom in there. 74, heavy set with a body like an egg with skinny legs. The idea of "real" women in mags is such a friggin joke.
Peace,
Shannon
All these three women looks good with great curves, of course no one knows if they are real or surgically altered. None of them looks excessively thin or over weight and are all some kind of known personality. My view point is, instead of boosting not so good women`s self esteem , looking at these pictures they will feel even worse.