“Julia knows how to capture and embrace authenticity, the beauty of my authenticity has been restored and rediscovered thanks to my experience with her.”
– Eryn S.
There’s something about me that a lot of people don’t know. Outside of the fact that a lot of people don’t know who I am, plenty of people who know me well don’t know how strongly I am concerned about the smallest details of myself as a woman, and a lot of people don’t know this because they’re too busy seeing all the things that I don’t: my beauty.
They don’t see the stretch marks on my backside, only the way I look in my jeans. They don’t see the discoloration on my stomach, back and shoulders, only my tiny tummy (compliments of jogging which I hate, and ab workouts that I unwillingly do). They don’t see my acne scars, or the scar on my chin that reflect the stitches I got at eleven or stitches on my leg that I got when I was 6. They don’t see me and, we certainly don’t see me the same way if they do.
They see me as beautiful. I see me as flawed, and that’s just the icky sticky reality of living my life as the woman I am through lenses that I constantly fail to take off.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t live my life in complete disgust at the way I look when I see me. I don’t hide in bathing suit covers to prevent the stretch marks on my butt from being visible. I don’t stop wearing bikinis to the pool, or cover my shoulders to disguise the discoloration. I’m proud to say that I go on living my life despite the fact that there are some things I don’t like about myself. You see, although I don’t like them, all my energy doesn’t go into hiding them in moments where exposing them is convenient.
A lot of my energy does, however, go into trying to get rid of them. I can’t express how many different stretch mark creams, shea butters, and moisturizers I’ve tried. Or how many different face mask combinations I’ve tried to get rid of my acne that only made it worse.
I have, however, recently found something that has been working well in smoothing out the acne, lightening up the scars on my face and the discoloration of my shoulders and back (yay!). But it was just the other night that I was about to place the Pinterest discovered regime onto my skin and I quickly thought to myself: “Julia wouldn’t care about getting rid of any of this…”
Now, I’m not saying that each of us should live in a world being consumed by what Julia or anyone else exclusively thinks, but what I am saying is that she has an eye for capturing everything that’s wrong with me (or that I think is wrong with me), and creating an “okayness” about my imperfections that I had never had before working with her. It’s incredible! I thought to myself that she wouldn’t care, because she would be too busy noticing how my imperfection fits in perfectly with who I am and how I look flaws and all.
Boudoir Photography brings out your Beauty!
I’ve seen the pride she takes in her work, and the profound amount of beauty she sees in each and every woman she photographs. A stretch mark here, surgical scar there, it doesn’t matter to her, it didn’t matter to her in working with me.
She didn’t see it unless you brought it to her attention and if you brought it to her attention, she would photograph it and call you even sexier with your flaw when going over the photos with you. She truly and sincerely embraced me because she embraces the whole woman, not just the pieces that we find most appealing, and I loved that about working with her.
She saw me, and wanted to highlight me, not nip, tuck, retouch, and hide what was most authentic to me and my body and for that I am incredibly thankful, and beautifully overwhelmed, because who would have thought that a few moments with Julia, could change a lifetime of self-configuring.
Who would have known that in having known her for only a little while, I would look at myself the way she looks at all her Muses: awestruck- with full knowledge of each imperfection, and with complete confidence and freedom to own every single part of me that isn’t what I think it should be into embracing exactly what it is.
“Thank you Julia, thank you forever.”
– E.