Artistic Nudes revisited

For me, it's been a difficult week with my moods bouncing all over the place, family issues, three cancelled shoots and feeling sick almost every single day I've been stressed, irritated, and feeling down. I don't have to tell you that the blues and body dissatisfaction are deeply linked for someone who lives in a body negative culture like ours (and, let's face it, not just ours- pretty much every culture is a body negative one. For as long as people have realized they can manipulate, control, and tear people down using their bodies, they've done it. People are great like that). Sometimes, no matter how far out you get, you fall back on that old body hating brainwashing. Now, I'm not so far gone that I would even think about those old destructive weight loss habits which don't work and aren't healthy- it's more about a frustration with and anger at my body for being the way it is, much like I'm often irritated with my body for having bipolar, or being hypermobile, or having dermographia. I can't change any of those things, but sometimes I feel angry that I wans't born free of them. Anyway, one of the biggest steps for me in my body acceptance journey was letting myself be photographed nude. So in this time when I'm struggling with body image again, I wanted to revisit those shoots. These are photos that weren't posted the first time and are all by Dan Smith.