You Should See Yourself In A Thousand Different Ways
Having photos of yourself is important and yes, I know, I might be a little biased - being a photographer and all - but honestly, having photos of yourself in a thousand different ways will introduce you to the complex glorious human and multi-faceted way you appear to others.
This is important because you get comfortable with a very specific story about yourself.
A story that was written ABOUT you, but not BY you.
Our whole lives up until this point have been shaped, molded, and narrated by people who came before and beside us.
Their beliefs trickled down into our bellies.
Their ideals shrouded us like cloaks.
The names, labels, and descriptors they used to describe us as PEOPLE
instead of our behaviors
Have created what we see before us.
“But, what does that have to do with photos?”
When you go see a photographer who has a very specific style, you provide yourself the opportunity to see yourself in a way that can counteract your usual narrative. YOU get to choose how you want to be captured, how you want to be seen, how you feel in the moment and because each photographer has a unique perspective, you will get to see multiple NEW narratives of your story in visual form.
Now, this can be VERY uncomfortable.
And our brain will try to tell us that what we are seeing isn’t right.
However, that’s simply because you are disrupting your brain’s neural pathways.
For 20+ years it has carved a neural path so deep,
etching the narrative that your caretakers and peers thrust upon you,
that any push off that path will cause your brain to short circuit for a minute.
And we MAY interpret this as “I look terrible in this photograph”
But the reality is, is that you are looking at a documentation of how ONE artist sees you.
It is ONE new story.
ONE new piece of evidence for a new narrative.
A new way of seeing your body and what it represents.
Photos can’t be “good” or “bad”
They are just capturing a moment in time
You have to realize that it is YOU
applying MEANING to a piece of documentation
and basing it’s inherent “goodness” or “badness”
on the PREVIOUS story you’ve been fed.
Just as you use ONE image to confirm the stories that other people have written for you,
you can choose to use that ONE image to confirm what YOU know to be true
Every time you visit a different photographer or artist you are essentially building up evidence to counteract the very deeply rooted ONE story that has been the foundation of your life…of course that’s going to be unsettling
But soon, you will have enough evidence that the original story will start to degrade.
It will fall apart.
It won’t make sense anymore.
Because you will have physical evidence showing you that:
Your body is capable of being SEXY.
Your spirit is capable of creating MAGIC.
Your attitude is capable of spitting FIRE.
Your power is capable of becoming UNSTOPPABLE.
Your confidence is UNWAVERING.
Your self is constantly CHANGING.
And whatever other evidence you require to break down your PREVIOUS narrative.
