Ideally, Deepika Padukone’s flat stomach shouldn’t bother me. At its best, it represents what the human body can achieve through discipline and not eating doughnuts. At worst, it’s an unrealistic ideal peddled by an industry with very little imagination. And yet, every time I see Deepika Padukone’s flat stomach, I sigh.
This is why women find fashion photographer Victoria Janashvili’s years of work with plus-sized models empowering. The beauty it celebrates is closer to what many of us see when we look in the mirror. Because the models are nude, there is no smothering of fat under Spanx or clever camera angles to hide paunches and tires in the shadow. It’s all there and it’s all scrumptious.
These photos are part of Janashvili’s photography art book Curves, which, she promises, will have models of different shapes, sizes and races. The models, like Denise Bidot and Marina Bulatkina in the photo here, are given every advantage of a proper fashion shoot: hair, makeup, all the doughnuts they can eat (probably).
No, we shouldn’t need to be told to love our bodies just the way they are. But sometimes it’s good to hear.
To watch a behind-the-scenes video of this shoot or to help get Victoria Janashvili’s book on stands, visit the project page on Kickstarter
