Making beauty without apology 🌸
My internal tension between being a feminist and shooting swimwear & intimate fashion at the same time.
When I started doing photography, I noticed I can reach my flow-state best when I can recreate little details that remind me of the good times in my childhood:
I remember how much beauty I could see in the world when I was small. I remember being enchanted by the twinkling lights next to freeway roads when I was in the backseat of our car, driving back home after a dinner with family friends. Or how I would imagine riding on the back of a horse next to the road we were driving on, free as one can be - with loose hair flowing in the wind, jumping over obstacles, imagining different kinds of outfits, being one with the horse and knowing where we would go without having to talk. I remember lying in the grass near our house, and endlessly staring at little daisies and how the sun shines through the petals. I remember helping my little sister curl her hair in our family bathroom, and taking photos at the park later to capture this moment in time when her blonde, full but super straight hair looked bouncy and fluffy - and her feeling so pretty and proud with her newly curled hairies.
The childhood memories make me love to study the best light, the best time of day, to notice beauty. It gives me a nostalgic feeling and throws me right back to a time that I almost effortlessly could notice beauty. Finding beauty everyday seems like a muscle I need to keep training, and sometimes I forget to do so - that does not put me in the best place. I noticed that finding beauty is actually one of the more important values in my life, even though I judged it as vain before and still sometimes do. I’m slowly learning to appreciate it for what it is, and the simple effect of it: humans love noticing beauty, because it makes us feel good.
my feminism
Even though most girlies I meet (mostly in the industry) seem to understand my work, a question I’ve been asked a few times by fellow-women is: ‘why do you show so much skin in your photos?‘. From the bottom of my heart, I understand that women will ask me this question - I also have asked this myself several times, and still do occasionally.
I grew up as a middle child, with an older sister and younger sister. My mother is a proud feminist, and I (thankfully) grew up knowing women to be equally as worthy and capable as men. To embrace my femininity, not letting things stop me because I’m a girl - even though the world might.
As you might be able to relate to, I went and still go through different phases depending on my mood and things that are happening in the world. Looking back the process is blurry and messy. A ‘women-are-better‘ phase, a ‘we’re not just our bodies’ phase, an ‘everything pink and girly‘ phase - and they all taught me something real. My feminism still sparks an inner fire that drives me, and teaches me how to approach the world and the fashion industry along the way. Consent isn't a formality in how I work, it's the foundation.
my gaze
But then there’s still: ‘why so much skin?‘. Seen from my gaze, fashion and clothing are a way of expression that I truly adore and use myself constantly, too. Some people pull out one outfit from the wardrobe and roll with it, other change 3-4 times a day to ‘suit their mood‘ - it can be some sort of performance, shield, or give a true insight into what you’re feeling that day. Take clothing away, and it can show someone more authentically. When the setting, safety and story is right, it comes across less performative and less aware.
In my work I love to both use clothing to express, but also leave it out or simplify it to focus on an experience and story more. It takes away distraction, just like leaving faces out of a photo does. I don’t make my work to show bodies, I make my work to capture an experience - what a warm bath feels like with lots of foam, what it feels like to have girl-dinner with your bestie after dipping in a pool and warming up in the last sunrays of the day, to dance in rain puddles even if it’s a cold day in October - everything without thinking about what people might see of all that. Just existing in that moment, presence, not having to perform. I want to capture what it feels like to be a woman when nothing holds you back, when you can just ‘be’ without having to be aware, to be free. I hope that’s the part that resonates. 🩷