ALTAIRA
Most of my life, I was a size 0 to a size 2. The body in times grows curves, though. Part of what happens is listening to a lot of people tell me that I'm someone unworthy. To an extent, I start to believe that.
I've had body image issues for long enough, it can sometimes feel like forever. Allowing others to compound upon that was not so much a conscious choice, as something that just happened.
What Emmanuela does in photography for survivors of trauma is the same thing she has always done for me, as a mother, as a friend, as the person who can pull me out of the places I never should have gone... Outside of myself, and within.
The constant click of her shutter is the sound of her calling a person back into themselves. Into the person who is already there. Whether they want to be taken there or not. Whether they are conscious of it or not.
She does not make art from images she must distort to find beauty. She never works to lose blemishes or hide scars. Only to bring out the light that has been hiding, for whatever reason, behind her models' current countenance.
This is why I model for her.
Altaira
"Altaira" is the chosen modeling name of my eldest daughter. This is the child who brought me to photography: when she was twelve years old, and wanted to try modeling, she for some reason believed I could create her portfolio—and, with my daughter's always unflagging faith in me, I did.
It is, perhaps, considered odd, within the photography and arts community, for a mother and daughter to collaborate in nude or "provocative" imagery. I am clearly no Sally Mann, capturing the childlike innocence of unadorned youth.
The truth of the matter is: when my daughter came to me, at the age of 21, and said she was ready to pose nude, I wasn't prepared. I do, however, know well this girl and, if it were her intent to pose nude for a camera, I determined it best be my lens than that of whichever tawdry photographer my daughter next encountered.
Over the last few years, as my daughter has amassed ink on her body, she has also incurred a greater sensibility of how I hold her in esteem, via my lens—and, when she has finally ventured into the larger worlds of modeling, she's been prepared to stand up for herself, without doubt: she knows the difference between types of licensing agreements; which types of licenses mean the photos in which she appears do belong to her; and she knows she need never remove her clothing, for a stranger.
This daughter's inherent beauty, grace, and ease at modeling have brought her continual offers for work in photography. She has, however, chosen a different career path, and is currently out of the United States. It is my great honor to know she is intelligent, forthright, and honorable. I love this girl. Madly.
