Carrie May Weems, who is a black woman photographer working out of New York, said she had read a Zora Neal Hurston book that changed her life. she quotes something that Zora said that profoundly encouraged and inspired me.
“You have the right to the glory and the beauty of your culture.”
I love that. I love that as woman I have the right to the glory and beauty of my body, my femininity, and my gender.
I spent the majority of my life hating the image in the mirror. I was told when I was a not more than 13 that I "shouldn't eat twinkies because they will make you fat" by a women who was an amazing friend but terribly insecure about her own body and it stuck with me. I have thrown up my dinner. I have chewed reeses peanut butter cups and then spit them out so that I could taste them but not have to eat them. I have stared at the mirror and pulled at my skin and wished that there was only half of what was there.
and I am done.
I saw through photography that the images I were using as my fuel for an "ideal body" were fabricated. I saw through learning photography how to fabricate images in such a way. and Now I don't believe a single lie on the cover of any magazine.
it became my personal joy to be able to photograph other women in their own skin. happy with it. confident in it, and unashamed.
I love photographing pin ups because I think it is freeing for me and the women I photograph. simply that.
I have no contrived agenda other than I think it's awesome when women stop worrying about their body and start enjoying it.
I know that there will be people who disagree with that and may feel discomfort over the idea of sharing things that they think are private, and I can only say for me, I think it's awesome. and if for you it's not, feel free not to look at my photos.
I also think that women are shown in a slew of advertising that are made specifically to target men, and I like that I am a women, making art for other women and that sometimes men enjoy it. How they enjoy it I have no control over, and I am OK with that.
You may feel my photos look the same as those used to exploit women and I have no argument for that. I know when I make photographs I make them to celebrate my femininity, that for years I hated because I thought it was a disadvantage. how my images read to you, is up to you. I have no control over that. but it won't stop me from making them, and it definitely won't stop me from celebrating it. and I am ok with that.
- Alicia
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