I AM-The Movement
First came the concept of the book. This didn’t happen overnight. Not at all. After the concept came the process of implementation. This involved introducing myself to hundreds of mature women over 40, and asking to photograph them in the Nude...listening to their first responses, and later their intimate details, mainly about their self-image, their sense of style and beauty, their personal fears, struggles, and triumphs. I wanted a diverse population of as many ethnic backgrounds and of different size and I wanted every age represented from 40 to infinity.
How hard could this be? How hard could it be to find these forgotten women? The hidden population that is sometimes described as past their prime. Ha-ha, as it turns out, it is harder than you might think.
According to society’s norms and of course, the fashion industry and Hollywood industry, beautiful women over 40 didn’t really seem relevant or worth a discussion. Their focus, and definition of beauty, relied on ideal images that had evolved over time.
Regardless of whether the woman were brunette, blonde or red heads, they were always most beautiful in their youth. This is what all women were instructed to believe...we learned it without anyone even needing to come out and say it. It was just the way we were raised, treated, or conditioned to believe.
Women were often told after they had children their bodies would deteriorate…they would never be as beautiful. If in fact anyone had actually tried to tell them they were beautiful... that wasn’t always forthcoming.
Most women grew up believing that the only truly beautiful women were the ones in magazines and in the movies...and if you weren’t beautiful, you weren’t special. Real women were less desirable…less perfect...what they did or what they thought wasn’t really the point now, was it? And so, this make believe narrative which was passed down from generation to generation continued the lie and got told and retold over and over...there were times when a single woman would break out of the mold, and shine a light on her inner beauty, and outer strengths. But these were always the exceptions to the rules...and most everyday/ordinary women didn’t trust that the exception could be the norm.
It took over a hundred years before women started to question these rules. And another hundred years before women started to change them into more just laws that governed such matters as the right to vote and work outside the home, and receive equal pay, and have an abortion. All the struggles women endured had left them shaken and scarred...some of their scars can’t be seen by the naked eye, but they are still there.
Eventually a few courageous women said we can change the system. We can fix what’s broken. We can demand better treatment, better educations, and better opportunities than our mothers and grandmothers...we can teach our daughters and sons to be more thoughtful and loving and kind.
And the woman’s movement was born. Soon more and more women were stepping out, into unknown and uncharted territory, asking all kinds of new and liberating questions. I guess I AM one of these new women. Using my camera to pry deeper into women’s psyches, I started to photograph timeless beauty, trying to capture what lies beneath the skin, women’s hidden desires, and hidden conflicts. I am motivated to help women overcome their inhibitions and insecurities about their bodies.
I believed if I could persuade enough women to let themselves be photographed naked, I could prove to them and prove to the whole world, ageless beauty does exist. Women over 40 and 50 and 60, and even women in their 80’s, 90’s to infinity, radiate from within and are beautiful at every age.
Sure enough, woman started to come forward, and started to embrace this concept. I AM is finally being published and from this book, came the start of something bigger: IAM-theMovement.com
I AM is becoming an interactive connection. Become a part of this movement...help women of all ages! Share your knowledge, your life lessons, your dreams and your fears. Create a YouTube, write a story, send us your videos…
Karen Williams, who initiated the first I AM video tour, opened a whole new channel of distribution for women. Her thoughtful, delicate way of interviewing, pushed the content to the next level.
Although, I will never stop taking photographs, I now have a team of woman behind me, offering more ways to connect and help empower other women.
I have to admit, “The book isn’t the end product...it is only the beginning. I want to carry the message of my book to all parts of the globe. I realize now, I can’t do this with just a book.”
IAM-theMovement.com is designed to expand the reach. To connect with women in all parts of the globe and find common ground. In other words, the book will go viral!
This is why IAM-theMovement.com is launching a website. The movement is becoming a platform for meeting like-minded friends, it is a platform for moving forward and daring to ask some hard questions...i.e., what is holding us back?
Why do we care whether people think we are pretty when we know how smart we are?
Why should we buy into the myth of needing a perfect body?
Why do we feel inadequate if we don’t want children or can’t have them?
Do we really want children in our 20’s and 30’s or do we want them at all?
Are we afraid to have children because of what it will do to our bodies?
Why are we afraid to speak truth to power?
Why do we want to hide our age? Why do so many women waste money on Botox®?
Why do so many women think wrinkles are ugly? Is it possible to move past body-shaming?
All these questions and more, demand answers. We want to know your opinions. We want to create more connections and help all women move past the stereotypes and the lies and discover just how beautiful they really are.
On we go! On our way to accept our perfect “imperfect” selves.