I'm still on my search to find beauty through form. Whenever I'm shooting with this specific goal I keep coming back to this continuing debate with body image and magazines and Photoshop (which I do not blame Photoshop, it's not the fault of the tool but those who use it, my quick two cents), I've been thinking a lot about my own views of my own body image.
A Flower | (c)M.M.Hewitt 2014
And I keep thinking back to Brooke Shaden's most current creativeLIVE workshop (I know, I've been talking about her a lot, but if anyone can give an inspiring motivational talk on body image she is it) and in it she said "Who cares what they put in magazines." And I fully agree with that. Who cares what they put in magazines. So what the front cover doesn't look like you. So what they slimmed down the model's waste line. Who cares? Our views of our own bodies should not come from magazines with their often times skewed views. Our views of our own bodies should come from our own hearts, and THE ONLY place that can be properly formed is in our homes from parents and siblings and friends who love us.
My messed up view on my body came from one single instance. When at the young age of hormones-are-first-rearing-their-nasty-faces-in-the-form-of-acne a friend looked at my face and said "Eww!" Before that single moment I never felt ugly. I always felt beautiful in the eyes of my parents. I was never raised to believe that I needed to look like what was shown in magazines. If my friend truly loved me as a friend should, they never would have said what they did. And I may not have this loathing of my skin.
Umbrella | (c)M.M.Hewitt 2104
Now, it is also argued that one should just not bother to care what anyone thinks, tabloid or personage, and solely find love for oneself from within. Which is all well and good. To some instance you shouldn't care what others think. Be yourself. But this love still has to be brought up from somewhere. We all aren't born with this inherent self-loving. It starts in the home, from the love of a parent. If you teach your young ones that they are beautiful and tell them every single day and if you show your children that you also love yourself and believe that you are beautiful then magazines and "photoshop" will have no hold on us.
Our beauty comes from our shape. Be it round, square, obtuse or pear. Let magazines change shape, who cares. Your shape is beauty.
Breaking Open | (c)M.M.Hewitt 2014