Shadowed Imprints

I grew up surrounded by media that taught girls how they should look. It started with thin blemish-free Barbies and eventuated with the relentlessness of the social media algorithms. 

So, as many girls do, I’ve grown up with a less than ideal body image which was precipitated through the lack of exposure to some normal bodies in the media. Bodies that were bigger, darker, lighter, spottier or hairier. Skin that wasn’t flawless or teeth that didn’t sparkle. The stretch marks on my hips were something that always made me self-conscious, until recently I always wore shorts over my bathers to not expose them. I think the change that has allowed me to embrace my stretch marks has been an active shift to a more positive social following. After seeing the body’s ‘imperfections’ normalised and beautified, I began to change the way I thought. 

This faceless portraiture series looks at marks on the body from bruises to burns to self-harm and captures the beauty in the body’s ability to heal and adapt. I’m aiming to highlight and instil the same beauty in imperfections that helped me to unlearn the negative views I had engrained in me since I was young.