Posing naked during or after pregnancy is often the last thing that some women feel like doing, but for others it can be both empowering and emotional.
Now a new book reveals the truth about women’s bodies after they have had children, complete with stunning photos and wise words from the mothers featured, all of whom explain how they learned to love their changing physique.
And it certainly doesn’t pull any punches. Stretchmarks, saggy tummies and loose skin all feature in A Beautiful Body Project: The Bodies of Mothers by US photographer Jade Beall.
According to experts, birth has a huge impact on a woman’s body and many feel their bodies are no longer the same afterwards.
But many of the women in Beall’s fascinating book say that having their photograph taken helped them to reconnect with their bodies and overcome any negative thoughts about their perceived imperfections.
Accompanying the photographs of 80 women who volunteered to be photographed nude or semi-nude are their stories of how giving birth changed them.
Some said that they initially found their new bodies with their stretch marks and loose skin ‘repulsive’ but after time, came to appreciate their strength and beauty.
Beall, who lives in Arizona, says she suffered from poor self-image all of her life, but that it was only after she become pregnant that she began to love her body.
After giving birth she once again fell into a trough of self-loathing and became obsessed with losing weight.
But when she posted a nude self-portrait online that showed her breast-feeding her baby son it went viral and was shared around the world.
Thanks to the huge media interest in her project, Beall then decided to create a series of photos showing ‘real’ and inspiring women of all different ages, shapes and sizes, saying that she hoped to inspire future generations of woman to embrace their beauty just as they are.
But Beall didn’t have the money to carry the project out on her own, and considered dropping the whole thing to concentrate on her professional work.
However her husband Alok Appadurai suggested that she tried to raise funds through Kickstarter. After uploading a video created on their home computer, she was astonished to find that people pledged $60,000- three times what she had asked for – and she had got a further $20,000 in pre-orders for the book.
Media interest in her project took off in early 2013 with coverage from news organisations from all around the world.
Now her book. which was edited, proofed and produced by neighbours and volunteers, will be published May 11.
In the preface, Beall writes: ‘We joyously present you with this revolutionary concept and global bodypositive and self-love movement: that one need not be photoshopped to be beautiful.
‘One need not be anyone but one’s own self to be lovely and lovable. One need not buy a thing
to ‘improve’ or ‘change’ their irreplaceable preciousness.
She continues: ‘Scars, rolls, bones, big or small breasts, wrinkles all tell a story, the ‘I Am Beautiful’ story.
‘Thin and voluptuous women; young and old women; dark-skinned and pale women; the one legged and no-legged women; yes all women beautiful on the inside are equally and authentically beautiful on the outside!’
‘There is no one else like you. Our variety and differences give greater meaning and depth to the concept of what beautiful truly is! We need you. I need you. You belong here. You are beautiful.’
Chris, 52, posed with her 21 year old daughter Loren and says her idea of beauty changed over the years.
