Little babes. Everything is new, fresh, interesting, exciting. They look at their reflections, and see themselves just as God made them. And they are content.
Fast forward these babes to teenagers. Looking in the mirrors, they see that they don't look like people in magazines, on TV. And they ache for the perfection that they see on those covers, those screens. They scrunch up their nose, wishing it was smaller. They look at their bodies, and forgo their slice of birth...day cake. And they are the opposite of content.
Their contentment has been stolen by an industry that trades the beauty that God created us to be by setting standards that are not only impossible to achieve, they are fake.
And I think it is time for it to stop.
Working with many high school senior girls, I see beautiful young women that have hearts of gold, their sweet faces radiantly reflecting their hearts, and precious bodies that hold those hearts safe. My mission has always been to look through my camera lens and see people as God sees them, and show them that.
Photoshop is not God's lens.
So, a note to past and future people who may find themselves on the other side of my lens:
You are YOU. I photograph you, and when you see yourself, it will not be someone unrecognizable because I've changed you so drastically in Photoshop. It will be the person of intrinsic value that was there in front of my lens. YOU.
It is time to give back to young girls and women the contentment they deserve. They are beautiful, because they are created in God's image. Period. End of Photoshop brush stroke.
This video shows you just how much can and is changed in Photoshop. It is quite disturbing to me as a photographer, and as a mother of an almost 11 year old girl.