This year's personal project surrounds a subject that I encounter in each and every boudoir session, no matter if I'm here in Atlanta or elsewhere in the world.
Let's talk about Scars.
While my breasts (I feel like that's the term I should use here) started to come in when I was around 11 years old, outside of the stretch marks from a young body growing some mega-boobs, my physical body doesn't have a lot of scarring. Sure, I also have one or two chicken-pock scars but that's it for my epidermis.
My mother gave birth to me when she was 32 and I was a lil bitch in the womb. So much that she needed to surgically remove me (what can I say, I was 1.5 weeks late and comfy AF). We call that a C-Section. I grew up constantly seeing my mom's scar, but she never mentioned it and to me it seemed just like another part of her beauty. In the 80s the scars were more aggressive... picture a vertical scar down the abdomen. Include the staple marks. Now add stretch marks.
This is normal for me.
Fast forward to the purple stretch marks I began to have as my boobs came in. We spent a lot of money on scar cream (Mederma anyone?), but time was really the healer. If I have to be honest, my scars didn't really bother me because I knew nothing different. I had no Instagram models to compare myself to, TEEN magazine was mainly documenting makeup trends, boy bands, and romance quizzes– not body types.
As I began my career as a photographer I was immediately drawn to people. People in their element, people not in their element, people in general.
When I started boudoir photography I immediately fell in love with the stories of my clients.
Of course each story isn't written with one page.
Our client's' stories are written page after page. They describe experiences. They describe joys. They describe very painful lows. They describe very painful highs.
In our clients I began to see a pattern of scars. We have physical scars that we'd like to cover up, yet the reason behind wanting to cover them is most often because we feel like we have to.
We have emotional scars that we would like forgotten. Those scars are harder to visually see, but they cut just as deep.
The thing about scars is that nearly 100% of the time a client comes to me she will request for me to remove any trace of her scars. There are of course exceptions, however a common request is to rid the images of all stretch marks, C-section scars, childhood wounds, beauty marks, adult battle-wounds, etc. We want to be seen as perfect.
Why do scars make us imperfect?
These are the thoughts and experiences I've had over the last 10 years as a photographer. About a year and a half ago I had a wild thought in my brain to bring boudoir clients in and photograph them with their scars. This would mean that those very scars they decided to hide would be brought to the present. These scars would be visible for all to see, and for all to love.
In January 2018 I introduced the 'SCARS' project. We'll bring you in for a personal photo session in order to beautifully document you and the scars that grace you. I have no idea how this project will evolve, but I knew that I needed to start somewhere. I knew that I needed our clients and all people everywhere (women and men) to see the power and beauty and personal strength that comes from scars.
Are you interested in participating in the 'Scars' project? Get in touch: Sarah@Ownboudoir.com
