Soft Belly, Warm Belly

A celebration of growing up and growing confidence. Looking at how we are always our harshest critic, how girlhood is a never ending journey and how we are ever changing and growing. We all have a belly, and we need to be kinder to her.

Soft Belly, Warm Belly is a continuation of my 2019 project, Distance. In which the thesis was, What is the different between Nudity and Nakedness? And how has art & photography influenced that throughout history.

In this new body of work, I’m further exploring the ways in which womens bodies are viewed within society and how photography as a medium can influence that perception as well as our perception of ourselves.

This time around, i’m looking at this topic in a way of self reflection and how my personal relationship with my body has changed within this time. I’m currently 7 years older, and no longer looking at my body through harsher teenage eyes. 

I’m asking questions; What do I see when I look in the mirror? How do we criticise ourselves and why? Looking at how our inner monologue can be our harshest critic as well as our biggest cheerleader.

This project aims to celebrate something we all have in common, our belly. A piece of us that contains so much importance, but also something we often have a hard time accepting. A part of us that is ever changing, no matter what age, and seeing how beautiful that really is.

As part of the project I aim to write some poetry to sit alongside the images, with one of the lines so far being: ‘But she is soft and she keeps me warm’

I want to ask other women how they would describe their belly and how that feeling and opinion changes as we age and grow and change over time. Capturing a wide range of voices is a top priority for me, I want every woman who looks at this project and see themselves reflected. I want to create a body of work that represents woman how they want to be seen. I've currently been mainly shooting with people close to me and working my way to a wider pool of people to work with, going through friends of friends and using word of mouth to build a community and safe space for women to want to take part. Next year I aim to go further a-field, hopefully shooting more internationally (I've already shot for this project in Berlin, Paris, Morocco and Thailand) and working with women in different sceneries and communities, As well as focusing more on various age ranges.

For my final outcome, it's my goal to produce a book and hopefully an exhibition to celebrate the body of work. With my medium being a range of 35mm and 120 film, hand-printing all of the images.