Pregnancy, creativity and self image.
This was an interesting shoot. The kind of shoot that tests your creativity and lets you know if your getting too comfortable with your surroundings.
It started with a four hour trip to Liberty Township Ohio, close to Youngstown. It was rained the whole way there and continued to do so after we arrived. Koren prefers to shoot with natural light so dark rainy days are the enemy. And on top of that our expecting mother’s apartment didn’t have a lot of window light. Luckily we cary a portable softbox (light) just for these occasions.
After the introductions and setup, aka “rearrange your furniture and turn your house into a studio”, she describes her desires for artistic pregnant nudes. Great! That’s what we do. But, that she also really, really dislikes her breasts and it is obvious that she is uncomfortable. So, all the usual shots are out the window and it’s time for pure organic, unpasteurized creativity.
Your temperature raises, your hands are hot. Visions of shots are racing through your mind faster than you can take the pictures. At least that’s what Koren is experiencing. I am handing Koren fresh memory cards and holding a light reflector, just trying to make sure the basics are covered so she can focus on being creative. But I am plagued with this persistent image in my mind of a pregnant belly against a white background, but not just a white background, illuminated! I tell Koren about it. It now seamed obvious how to achieve this effect, why hadn’t I thought of it before?
It worked better than I ever could have imagined. Now it is one of our favorite shots. The entire shoot turned out fantastic and I still smile when I look the images because with all the technical things that can go wrong at any moment during a shoot, staying centered and focused on the art is the true test of talent and creativity. After ten years of loving what we do, we still pass the test!
But what about this issue our subject had about not liking her breasts. Unfortunately this is not at all uncommon for us. I find this so sad and disturbing.
It seems like every woman at some point in her life picks a body part and decides that it is in some way substandard. Most likely due to some magazine image featuring a picture of a woman that has been digitally enhanced. Possibly repeated offhand comments from a boyfriend or even her own mother. All innocent enough but latent with heavy consequences.
Koren and I have been doing this for a long time and we both agree that women come in all shapes and sizes and we have yet to see a “bad” one.
If you have a part of your body that you think is ugly, you’re just looking at it from the wrong perspective.
By the end of the shoot our mom-to-be became completely relaxed and comfortable with us and Koren got a few shots with her not covering up. I am sure you can see that the only thing wrong with her breasts is her own perception of them.
For more on this subject check out the I Am Project
September 9th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
It is so important that a woman can see herself as beautiful. This woman, who was very cute and really a wonderful person, certainly had some issues about her body. I think she had issues at first about not being comfortable with her image but really wanted the pictures taken. Later when I showed some of the pictures to another pregnant mother that woman’s response was “but I don’t look like a model” insinuating that this woman did look like a model. No one ever feels like a model (sometimes not even professional models) but other people may see them as such!