The term “Self Love” is a term most people would be familiar with. At its core, Self Love is used as an umbrella term to showing yourself care and treating yourself with compassion. However as the Self Love movement developed momentum, it is often now see as a filler word used to advertise skin-care, clothing and other products. These products often have the reverse effect of what Self Love is supposed to be and subconsciously teaches ourselves to devalue body. They highlight things our bodies do because they are normal bodies, and tell use its an “issue” or a “flaw” and that their product can fix it.
This is exactly why I stepped away from the term Self Love, and coined the term Body Love. Boudoir Photography is about capturing your physical form and creating beautiful imagery from one’s body. In a world that has been taken over by filters, airbrushing and retouching, I decided that when I first started Leaf & Lace, that I will not be a part of this. By choosing not to photoshop or retouch people’s bodies, I am choosing acceptance of all bodies in their raw and natural forms and shapes. I am proving you can capture the body in the most beautiful and flawless ways without adding a filter, without airbrushing and without retouching.
Leaf & Lace is all about appreciating the real and raw you. This is what Body Love is. It is giving love to your Body regardless of what it looks. It is giving love to your body despite how it changes and grows. It is giving love to your body even on the days that you are finding it hard to. It is about compassion, acceptance and being patient with yourself. It is about losing shame for your body doing normal body things. It is about being unapologetic about existing.
As I grew as a Photographer, I realised that a lot of my client’s had already reached a certain stage of their Body Love Journey where they were accepting and giving love to their body. Although I knew that by capturing them, I was helping them reach a new stage and level of love, I wasn’t helping those who were at the earliest stages of their Body Love Journey. Although some clients are happy to share their imagery from their session and lead by example, I didn’t feel like this was enough to impact change to those who really needed it. I wanted to create a safe space that was able to take a deep dive into exploring Body Love and target particular things that people struggle to give Love to. This is why I created The Body Love Project.
The Body Love Project is an online event hosted on the 1st of every month on Leaf & Lace's Social Media. It aims to normalise normal body things and hold space for those who might struggle to explore and/or accept certain parts of their bodies. It aims to educate, celebrate and embrace all bodies. Each month, the Leaf & Lace Community decides together what deserves to be given extra Body Love. Once the theme is decided, submissions can be made that aligns with the theme and are then shared anonymously across our platforms. Submissions can be in forms of photos, videos or stories.
If you wish to participate all you have to do is send me a message with your photo/video/story that you would like to share that matches the monthly theme. If you have a suggestion for something you would like to see on the list of Body Love Projects, contact me and I'll add it in!
All of the previous Body Love Projects can be seen here.