The Portrait Project – Preview

It all started with that Dove ad. You know, the one flying around social media where women described themselves “honestly” and helped a forensic artist draw a portrait of themselves. What they described was an uglier version of reality.

*sigh*

It was a moving, yet commercially viral ad. A home run piece of genius marketing for Dove. And yet an awful reminder of it’s core truth:

Women today continue to have horrible self esteem issues……..STILL. 

 After all that women have overcome throughout eternity, really? Ladies…..are we STILL at this place as a whole?

Sometimes I feel like it’s just me. Or my circle of friends. And then I see an ad like that and I am reminded that pretty much ALL women are STILL struggling with something, regardless of what they look like.

How sad.

We encourage one another to compare flaws so we don’t feel so alone.
Example: “Ohmigosh…meh hair is like sooooo flat…..”
“Your HAIR, “you should see my THIGHS…ugh…”
“Giiiiirl…I WISH I had your thighs…”
“I hate my stomach”

and so it goes…

Here’s an idea…….

Maybe for one day, let’s just give ourselves a break and just focus how unique and special we are. Inside AND out.

It’s not some big movement that hasn’t been done before. I simply thought, ‘well gee….let’s do some “thing” fun…for women….real women…just for fun….for no reason at all…to spoil them. To make them feel beautiful. To connect them with other women. To have a girls day. To chat over coffee and make up and hey…I’m a photographer….maybe I should take some pictures while we are at it.

I like to spoil my past clients, so I always start with them on special projects. I put some feelers out vaguely explaining this random idea that had no name.  Eventually I started calling it “The Portrait Project” and it just stuck. Why go crazy when simple usually works right? I then opened it up to friends and friends of friends. The response was overwhelming and we quickly had filled our available slots and then some.

With the help and incredible talent of Mia Crivaro from Creations by Mia, a little make up and a little lighting helped produce some incredible portraits that I am really excited about. But I was more excited about the look on each of their faces when I showed them the image on the back of my camera of just how beautiful each of them were. Without photoshop. In real life.

~

Now…I can’t speak for each of them or declare that any of them has any issues with self esteem.

I can only assume that maybe someone whether they were in the studio that day or not ***MAYBE**** feels like one of those women in that Dove commercial.

I wanted to use the tools that I have to show them how I see them; how the world sees them, and how uniquely they were created. And if nothing more to give them a fun experience to remember during those “other” days when the rest is hard to believe.

So here is a sneak peek of some of my favorites. Others will be featured here on the blog and on the Facebook Business Page HERE, so be sure to “like” the page to be notified if you are interested in seeing more.

A big giant THANK YOU to Mia, Kacey and Caity for helping, and for all the women who took this vague trip with me. Making arrangements for your kids, taking the day off work, traveling as far as Manhattan and Philadelphia. I truly thank you. I had SO much fun spending the day with you all!

XOXO,
Angie