[Music]
you
so there was this one decisive moment
when it was very clear to me that I
would use my work in photography to
explore true beauty I was doing a
fashion photo shoot on the Lower East
Side in New York it was a very early
call time so when I got to set we were
delayed because the hair and makeup
teams were running late I got my
equipment set up and scoped out the
space visualizing in all of the photos
that I wanted to make I grabbed some
coffee and just waited around for the
rest of the crew to show up the model
for the shoot was there and so we just
began to chat
she was actually from Brazil which was
great because I had just traveled to
Brazil the year before spent a few
months there it was really fun to
practice the few Portuguese words that I
had learned talk about Brazil here about
her travels around the world I really
liked her energy we had a great
connection and I was getting really
excited to make photos with her so after
a while the hair and makeup team show up
the model gets into the first outfit
we’re ready to go we were going for an
urban feel for the shoot so the model
and I climb out this little window onto
this old rusty fire escape that sort of
overlooked the street below us the model
was sitting in front of me smoking a
cigarette she wasn’t actually a smoker
but the art director for this shoot
thought it would make her look cooler
more edgy so just a couple of minutes
before we were ready to start she sent
the photo assistant to the corner store
to get a pack of cigarettes everything’s
in place and I grabbed my camera put it
up to my eye and in that moment the
model changed right before my eyes her
back arched and her gaze dropped on to
the side and her mouth did that model
pouty thing that always happens in
photos she was no longer that person I’d
been talking to she had transformed into
the model that she was trained to be in
that moment I hated my work
it felt like the most inauthentic thing
in the world to me because that’s the
age-old recipe for success right you get
your product and you give it to a pretty
girl you make an image and a lot of
times you modify that image to a
completely unrealistic level you put it
into all of your advertising and you
make real women feel like that’s what
they should aspire to be I hated being a
part of that system I wanted to tell a
different story
about bodies and beauty so I decided to
go back to Brazil I loved the diversity
of beauty there and the way that Brazil
truly felt like a melting pot indigenous
European African Asian all mixed
together over generations it felt like
the perfect place to talk about bodies
and the stories that they can tell so I
packed up my life in New York went back
to Brazil and started making photos I
was just learning Portuguese didn’t know
a lot of people so I started with my
small group of acquaintances and took a
lot of a lot of portraits all different
settings and positions it’s something
that I learned really early on is that
women’s bodies are inherently viewed as
sexual even when men bodies are not if I
showed a nude woman in my photos people
almost always saw that as a sexual image
I wanted to create a new narrative about
bodies so I needed to find a way to show
women’s bodies without a sexual
connotation so after a lot of
experimentation I eventually decided
that I would create portraits shot from
the back my project female was born I
found four women to start and created a
little photo studio in my apartment I
had a white wall that I used as a
background and lots of natural light in
the space the women would sit or stand
facing the wall and I’d photograph their
backs really simple
in the beginning I would suggest poses
tilt your head this way you move your
arm a little bit this way but pretty
quickly I realized that the most
interesting part was just there the
differences in their natural posture the
part of all of this that was completely
stunning to me was how the women reacted
to seeing their own portraits they
didn’t recognize themselves they didn’t
really believe that that was them it was
uncomfortable and confusing but also
liberating
they were so accustomed to seeing their
faces and portraits even the Friends of
themselves but looking at their backs
that was unnerving it was a little bit
like hearing a recording of your own
voice they’d never seen themselves from
that angle and truly they’d only
revealed the entirety of their backs and
the most intimate situations maybe with
a sexual partner or a doctor and I’ve
photographed a lot of women so I’m
pretty familiar with what happens when
women see portraits of themselves
there’s an assessment that takes place
oh we like my hair in this one my arms
look a little bit fat here a lot of
judgment but with these photos it was
different it was as if these women
weren’t really looking at themselves but
instead they were searching for
themselves in the photos wondering if
that’s truly how the world sees them and
in that tiny window of disorientation
and confusion I realized I could have
the opportunity to guide these women to
a new way to feel about their bodies as
I continued making and sharing portraits
female began to gain popularity now it’s
been showed around the world South
Africa Italy India Japan Germany and
it’s generated a lot of conversation a
favorite publication of mine was an
interview that I did with ID
magazine I was so thrilled when they
chose this portrait of beautiful 87 year
old aria to run across the top of the
page
can you imagine right there with these
twenty-something and cool kids and
pretty people
beautiful Aria and Vanity Fair in Italy
when they wrote about female they
included all of these different
portraits this collection of women of
all body types it’s not what I’m used to
seeing on the covers of fashion so not
cover in fashion magazines I felt great
because I felt like I’d moved so far
away from that system that objectifies
women and I found a way to create
beautiful images that could change the
very limited way that we think about
female beauty so I’ve tried to wrap my
mind around what it is about this
project that resonates with so many
people across the world and I discovered
this German term piconfig wha sorry I
don’t speak German and if you translate
that literally it means back figure you
could understand it to mean a figure
viewed from behind and this is a
compositional device used by artists
generally painters in order to sort of
thrust the viewer of the painting into
the scene they will put a human figure
there looking out into the scene the
subject is often overlooking a vast
landscape you know really a direct
observer and this functions almost like
an invitation for you as the viewer of
the painting to step right into that
person’s footsteps and view everything
from their perspective my portraits do
the same thing they invite you to step
into each woman’s skin for a moment
there’s no beautiful landscape there
there’s no unfolding drama to witness
but there is the opportunity to reflect
on each woman’s existence her skin color
the texture of her hair
her warmth her scars the marks on her
body her beauty her peculiarities and
all of their glory women I’d never met
began to write to me about the project
and sometimes I really couldn’t believe
everything that they would reveal to me
complete strangers would tell me about
all of the ways that they’ve struggled
within their bodies sexual violence
racism humiliation and how seen all of
these women together showing their
strength and vulnerability empowered by
their imperfections began to change all
of that there’s one letter in particular
that I wanted to share with you guys
today and this was from Aiza excuse me
yeah this is from Aiza in Brazil I think
this project is wonderful and I would
like to participate
unfortunately I live far from you but
throughout my life I’ve listened to
several people mainly my family always
talking about my skin tone or curly hair
I never believed much and what these
people said but no one is made of steel
at nine years old I started to suffer
from bullying at school because of my
color they would call me slave and tell
me that my place was in the kitchen and
of course the offenses were always
accompanied by violence for a long time
I really believed what the girls said
until they began to draw and mature a
little more during that time I began to
learn more about embracing your origins
just as I discovered feminism and its
ideas I am Who I am today thanks to my
roots and I’m very proud of that this
project is so important to me because in
this way other girls that like me have
suffered or continue to suffer from this
type of discrimination can pass through
the same experience that I have and
understand that above all they should be
proud of who they are
even when the world tries to tell them
who they should be from Aiza so I was
kind of blown away by that
15 years old that’s a lot of wisdom and
in those first months receiving those
intimate messages I really began to
understand how much damage was being
done to women and their self images in
the name of this beauty myth as women so
much of our perceived societal value is
wrapped up in our physical appearance
we received messaging is about how we
should look and what about us isn’t good
enough starting at just a couple of
years old and even when we get older and
we begin to understand that so much of
this is based in patriarchy and
perpetuated by companies that stands a
profit from our insecurities these
messages are often internalized and we
struggle to remember that they’re not
the truth but they are not the true
story of course I think that these
portraits alone are beautiful but what I
think is most powerful about female is
how every woman who participates is very
intimately involved as a part of the
project I invite each woman to write her
own personal reflection and that serves
as a caption that goes along with her
portrait it’s important to me that this
is a collaborative experience not just
my perspective on each woman but also
her own personal expression these women
are my teachers in their strength and
vulnerability they’ve shown me what true
beauty is true beauty is the
one-of-a-kind mark on our skin that as
children we may be ashamed of but as we
get older and understand more about the
world we see that it connects us to the
most spiritual parts of who we are it’s
the resilience I see when I look at
angel who’s scheduled a portrait session
with me but warn me ahead of time that
because she’s battling a chronic illness
and some days just doesn’t
good enough to leave the house she may
need to call and cancel on portrait day
it’s the obvious links that I see
between generations when I photograph a
mother and daughter together or in this
case a grandmother and a granddaughter
together it’s the search for belonging
of a biracial woman who doesn’t fit
neatly into a black or white box in the
courage of publicly transitioning to
living let your life as a woman after
decades of publicly identifying as a man
the story of hours of work and effort
that you put into building a strong and
fierce body or the discoloration on your
skin from the hours that you’ve spent
under the Sun mastering the sport that
you love for those like Sita who carry
the gift of melanin in their skin it’s
the recognition of the ritual and the
struggle of your ancestors and how that
has shaped who you are today beauty is
the marks that we choose to use to adorn
our bodies as we move through different
phases of our lives and the poetry of
femininity that exudes even in to the
point of a flower in your hair it’s also
the individuality of someone who doesn’t
fit into a stereotypical feminine space
but takes great pride in being a woman
and the scars that show the tools placed
on our body but also demonstrate our
incredible capacity to heal it’s the
recognition of how our bodies can hold
on to weight and struggle from a much
younger age and maybe most of all it’s
the gratitude that we have toward our
bodies for being our most intimate
witnesses to the challenge and struggles
of recent years
to quote Kennedy who I photographed when
I was in San Francisco my worth doesn’t
lie and how I present or sexualize my
body to the outside world but in the
freckles scars and tan lines I
accumulate from living my life
authentically
I learned so much from working on female
that I’ve actually changed all of my
work to focus solely on creating
empowering portraiture of women this
year I opened a portrait studio that
just focuses on that celebrating women
and the various stages of their lives
it’s been such an honor for me to find
this way to use photography purposefully
to create an opportunity for these women
to get very in touch with how they feel
about their bodies and to reclaim what
their bodies mean to them I feel like
I’ve discovered the magic of creating a
safe space for women to feel strong and
beautiful in their vulnerability and
individuality none of this is about
perfection it’s all about being real and
it’s amazing what happens when you have
the courage to resist living your life
as a performance for others and really
begin to stand in your true light thank
you
[Applause]
you
so there was this one decisive moment
when it was very clear to me that I
would use my work in photography to
explore true beauty I was doing a
fashion photo shoot on the Lower East
Side in New York it was a very early
call time so when I got to set we were
delayed because the hair and makeup
teams were running late I got my
equipment set up and scoped out the
space visualizing in all of the photos
that I wanted to make I grabbed some
coffee and just waited around for the
rest of the crew to show up the model
for the shoot was there and so we just
began to chat
she was actually from Brazil which was
great because I had just traveled to
Brazil the year before spent a few
months there it was really fun to
practice the few Portuguese words that I
had learned talk about Brazil here about
her travels around the world I really
liked her energy we had a great
connection and I was getting really
excited to make photos with her so after
a while the hair and makeup team show up
the model gets into the first outfit
we’re ready to go we were going for an
urban feel for the shoot so the model
and I climb out this little window onto
this old rusty fire escape that sort of
overlooked the street below us the model
was sitting in front of me smoking a
cigarette she wasn’t actually a smoker
but the art director for this shoot
thought it would make her look cooler
more edgy so just a couple of minutes
before we were ready to start she sent
the photo assistant to the corner store
to get a pack of cigarettes everything’s
in place and I grabbed my camera put it
up to my eye and in that moment the
model changed right before my eyes her
back arched and her gaze dropped on to
the side and her mouth did that model
pouty thing that always happens in
photos she was no longer that person I’d
been talking to she had transformed into
the model that she was trained to be in
that moment I hated my work
it felt like the most inauthentic thing
in the world to me because that’s the
age-old recipe for success right you get
your product and you give it to a pretty
girl you make an image and a lot of
times you modify that image to a
completely unrealistic level you put it
into all of your advertising and you
make real women feel like that’s what
they should aspire to be I hated being a
part of that system I wanted to tell a
different story
about bodies and beauty so I decided to
go back to Brazil I loved the diversity
of beauty there and the way that Brazil
truly felt like a melting pot indigenous
European African Asian all mixed
together over generations it felt like
the perfect place to talk about bodies
and the stories that they can tell so I
packed up my life in New York went back
to Brazil and started making photos I
was just learning Portuguese didn’t know
a lot of people so I started with my
small group of acquaintances and took a
lot of a lot of portraits all different
settings and positions it’s something
that I learned really early on is that
women’s bodies are inherently viewed as
sexual even when men bodies are not if I
showed a nude woman in my photos people
almost always saw that as a sexual image
I wanted to create a new narrative about
bodies so I needed to find a way to show
women’s bodies without a sexual
connotation so after a lot of
experimentation I eventually decided
that I would create portraits shot from
the back my project female was born I
found four women to start and created a
little photo studio in my apartment I
had a white wall that I used as a
background and lots of natural light in
the space the women would sit or stand
facing the wall and I’d photograph their
backs really simple
in the beginning I would suggest poses
tilt your head this way you move your
arm a little bit this way but pretty
quickly I realized that the most
interesting part was just there the
differences in their natural posture the
part of all of this that was completely
stunning to me was how the women reacted
to seeing their own portraits they
didn’t recognize themselves they didn’t
really believe that that was them it was
uncomfortable and confusing but also
liberating
they were so accustomed to seeing their
faces and portraits even the Friends of
themselves but looking at their backs
that was unnerving it was a little bit
like hearing a recording of your own
voice they’d never seen themselves from
that angle and truly they’d only
revealed the entirety of their backs and
the most intimate situations maybe with
a sexual partner or a doctor and I’ve
photographed a lot of women so I’m
pretty familiar with what happens when
women see portraits of themselves
there’s an assessment that takes place
oh we like my hair in this one my arms
look a little bit fat here a lot of
judgment but with these photos it was
different it was as if these women
weren’t really looking at themselves but
instead they were searching for
themselves in the photos wondering if
that’s truly how the world sees them and
in that tiny window of disorientation
and confusion I realized I could have
the opportunity to guide these women to
a new way to feel about their bodies as
I continued making and sharing portraits
female began to gain popularity now it’s
been showed around the world South
Africa Italy India Japan Germany and
it’s generated a lot of conversation a
favorite publication of mine was an
interview that I did with ID
magazine I was so thrilled when they
chose this portrait of beautiful 87 year
old aria to run across the top of the
page
can you imagine right there with these
twenty-something and cool kids and
pretty people
beautiful Aria and Vanity Fair in Italy
when they wrote about female they
included all of these different
portraits this collection of women of
all body types it’s not what I’m used to
seeing on the covers of fashion so not
cover in fashion magazines I felt great
because I felt like I’d moved so far
away from that system that objectifies
women and I found a way to create
beautiful images that could change the
very limited way that we think about
female beauty so I’ve tried to wrap my
mind around what it is about this
project that resonates with so many
people across the world and I discovered
this German term piconfig wha sorry I
don’t speak German and if you translate
that literally it means back figure you
could understand it to mean a figure
viewed from behind and this is a
compositional device used by artists
generally painters in order to sort of
thrust the viewer of the painting into
the scene they will put a human figure
there looking out into the scene the
subject is often overlooking a vast
landscape you know really a direct
observer and this functions almost like
an invitation for you as the viewer of
the painting to step right into that
person’s footsteps and view everything
from their perspective my portraits do
the same thing they invite you to step
into each woman’s skin for a moment
there’s no beautiful landscape there
there’s no unfolding drama to witness
but there is the opportunity to reflect
on each woman’s existence her skin color
the texture of her hair
her warmth her scars the marks on her
body her beauty her peculiarities and
all of their glory women I’d never met
began to write to me about the project
and sometimes I really couldn’t believe
everything that they would reveal to me
complete strangers would tell me about
all of the ways that they’ve struggled
within their bodies sexual violence
racism humiliation and how seen all of
these women together showing their
strength and vulnerability empowered by
their imperfections began to change all
of that there’s one letter in particular
that I wanted to share with you guys
today and this was from Aiza excuse me
yeah this is from Aiza in Brazil I think
this project is wonderful and I would
like to participate
unfortunately I live far from you but
throughout my life I’ve listened to
several people mainly my family always
talking about my skin tone or curly hair
I never believed much and what these
people said but no one is made of steel
at nine years old I started to suffer
from bullying at school because of my
color they would call me slave and tell
me that my place was in the kitchen and
of course the offenses were always
accompanied by violence for a long time
I really believed what the girls said
until they began to draw and mature a
little more during that time I began to
learn more about embracing your origins
just as I discovered feminism and its
ideas I am Who I am today thanks to my
roots and I’m very proud of that this
project is so important to me because in
this way other girls that like me have
suffered or continue to suffer from this
type of discrimination can pass through
the same experience that I have and
understand that above all they should be
proud of who they are
even when the world tries to tell them
who they should be from Aiza so I was
kind of blown away by that
15 years old that’s a lot of wisdom and
in those first months receiving those
intimate messages I really began to
understand how much damage was being
done to women and their self images in
the name of this beauty myth as women so
much of our perceived societal value is
wrapped up in our physical appearance
we received messaging is about how we
should look and what about us isn’t good
enough starting at just a couple of
years old and even when we get older and
we begin to understand that so much of
this is based in patriarchy and
perpetuated by companies that stands a
profit from our insecurities these
messages are often internalized and we
struggle to remember that they’re not
the truth but they are not the true
story of course I think that these
portraits alone are beautiful but what I
think is most powerful about female is
how every woman who participates is very
intimately involved as a part of the
project I invite each woman to write her
own personal reflection and that serves
as a caption that goes along with her
portrait it’s important to me that this
is a collaborative experience not just
my perspective on each woman but also
her own personal expression these women
are my teachers in their strength and
vulnerability they’ve shown me what true
beauty is true beauty is the
one-of-a-kind mark on our skin that as
children we may be ashamed of but as we
get older and understand more about the
world we see that it connects us to the
most spiritual parts of who we are it’s
the resilience I see when I look at
angel who’s scheduled a portrait session
with me but warn me ahead of time that
because she’s battling a chronic illness
and some days just doesn’t
good enough to leave the house she may
need to call and cancel on portrait day
it’s the obvious links that I see
between generations when I photograph a
mother and daughter together or in this
case a grandmother and a granddaughter
together it’s the search for belonging
of a biracial woman who doesn’t fit
neatly into a black or white box in the
courage of publicly transitioning to
living let your life as a woman after
decades of publicly identifying as a man
the story of hours of work and effort
that you put into building a strong and
fierce body or the discoloration on your
skin from the hours that you’ve spent
under the Sun mastering the sport that
you love for those like Sita who carry
the gift of melanin in their skin it’s
the recognition of the ritual and the
struggle of your ancestors and how that
has shaped who you are today beauty is
the marks that we choose to use to adorn
our bodies as we move through different
phases of our lives and the poetry of
femininity that exudes even in to the
point of a flower in your hair it’s also
the individuality of someone who doesn’t
fit into a stereotypical feminine space
but takes great pride in being a woman
and the scars that show the tools placed
on our body but also demonstrate our
incredible capacity to heal it’s the
recognition of how our bodies can hold
on to weight and struggle from a much
younger age and maybe most of all it’s
the gratitude that we have toward our
bodies for being our most intimate
witnesses to the challenge and struggles
of recent years
to quote Kennedy who I photographed when
I was in San Francisco my worth doesn’t
lie and how I present or sexualize my
body to the outside world but in the
freckles scars and tan lines I
accumulate from living my life
authentically
I learned so much from working on female
that I’ve actually changed all of my
work to focus solely on creating
empowering portraiture of women this
year I opened a portrait studio that
just focuses on that celebrating women
and the various stages of their lives
it’s been such an honor for me to find
this way to use photography purposefully
to create an opportunity for these women
to get very in touch with how they feel
about their bodies and to reclaim what
their bodies mean to them I feel like
I’ve discovered the magic of creating a
safe space for women to feel strong and
beautiful in their vulnerability and
individuality none of this is about
perfection it’s all about being real and
it’s amazing what happens when you have
the courage to resist living your life
as a performance for others and really
begin to stand in your true light thank
you
[Applause]
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