Meet Jodi Bieber. Bieber is a Photographer hailing from South Africa - I highly recommend you check out her website. In the mission statement for her most recent project, entitled Real Beauty, Bieber states:
"I felt a strong need to create a body of work that
goes against what the media has depicted as
beautiful. Even within a complexed society
such as South Africa, across all communities,
women hold unneccesary perceptions of self
doubt around themselves and their beauty from
an early age. ‘PERFECT’. The work deals with
reality and no photoshop has been used to
remove blemishes, scars, cellulite and any
other form of ‘imperfection’, but also touches
on fantasy.
The photographic shoot was a collaboration
between myself and each woman, whom I
photographed at their homes. The setting
within their surroundings was my choice but
each women’s pose was pretty much self
directed. I wanted each women to project their
personality or their fantasy into their shoot. The
shoot created a space for each women to
explore their own identity in relation to beauty
and to live for a couple of hours in an
environment of elements of fantasy."
Rather than elevate the status of one body type by putting down another, Bieber's work is truly a celebration of the female form (and the often overlooked women who embody them). She is not trying to create a sense of competition between women, nor is she trying to sell a product or objectify women's bodies. Her real women are free from airbrushing and photoshop and vary from the idealised beauty types in our society (that is to say: young, white, able-bodied, thin and free of any wrinkles or blemishes). There are more photos at the source, but here are some I've picked out:
-Fitz
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