Women's Portraits: showing women of all shapes, sizes, and ages how beautiful they really are
Photographing women, telling their stories, and helping them to see the beauty and miracle and divine light in themselves has been something on my heart for a long time. Here's why.
Who remembers the Dove's Real Beauty Sketches video? Click on the link and watch it. It has almost 70 million views. There was lots of talk about why this resonated so much with women. But really, I think we already know why it resonates.
As women, we are often really critical of the way we look. As a result there's usually a big self-image problem. This keeps getting reinforced with filters, ads, and celebrities telling us they didn't have any work done; they just drink a lot of water and walk everyday. Here's another one of Dove's ads about, well, ads.
So, why on earth would we get professional portraits of ourselves? It's kinda weird. You're not graduating from high school or getting headshots for your corporate job, you don't need maternity photos, and besides, you could just take a selfie on your phone.
"I photograph a lot of people. Almost everyone believes they are ugly. Your grandmother. Your child. Your best friend. Most models. Most actors. Maybe even you.
“Oh, don’t take my photo, I’ll break your camera!” laughs the 80-year-old grandfather. When he dies a few months later, his grandkids will treasure this reminder of his “ugly mug.”
“Please delete this,” says a dear old friend. She looks beautiful. She looks like herself. She’s been captured in a moment in which she is utterly comfortable in her skin. And she hates it.
“Oh God,” I said, because I had to get a professional headshot for work. “I have a face like a slapped ham,” I told the makeup artist I hired because I’m so hideous that I can’t bear to have photos of me around. The selfie I took of “the best it’s ever going to get” is my husband’s iPhone background.
You will never see yourself with the love that others have for you. That’s what makes a person beautiful, not angles or contours. You will never be objective about your appearance. But fortunately for you, your friends and family are never objective, either: they’re biased to see you through the way they smile when you walk into a room. They want every photo of you they can get their hands on, because each photo is tied to your memory.
You’re the worst judge of your appearance. Trust me. You look fine. The camera loves you. Now take a picture."
From an anonymous reddit post here
As a woman, whatever stage of life you're in, it's easy to let so much of ourselves be defined by others. There's something freeing about professional solo portraits for whatever the occasion or non-occasion. Be it a documentation of a goal that you've met, a personal victory you've achieved, to mark a new chapter in your life, to celebrate where you are now, or for no reason at all other than you want to.
Are you ready for this?
Fill out the contact form below. I'll send you a guide and walk you through choosing locations that you love and suggestions about styling. We'll set up a phone call, and I can answer all of your questions. We can get to know each other a bit, and pick a date and time that works for both of us. We'll meet, have a great time taking pics, and a couple weeks after that you'll receive an email link to your fully downloadable gallery. You can make the images into prints, form them into an album, post them like mad, or keep them to yourself.
And don't be surprised if, like after a recent portrait session I did for a friend of mine, the images come back and you say to me, "Jen, I can't believe how beautiful I look."
