Strong women. May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them.
In the sprit of that phrase, I want to share a talk with you. This is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a woman I discovered through a Beyonce ‘s visual album. This talk is 30 minutes long, but I promise you it’s worth it. Pretty much every TED talk is worth it, but this one more than most.
I find myself on the train now, watching teenage girls stare each other down and listening to them talk badly about other girls they know, and I think how Chimamanda says that we raise our girls “to see each other as competitors, not for jobs or accomplishments which I think can be a good thing, but for the attention of men.”
I’ve been thinking about the strongest women I know – how much they have influenced me and taught me about life, and how much I wish I knew more strong women. If you feel the same, let this woman teach you about feminism:
http://www.tedxeuston.comChimamanda Ngozi Adichie a renowned Nigerian novelist was born in Nigeria in 1977. She grew up in the university town of Nsukka, Enugu State where she attended primary and secondary schools, and briefly studied Medicine and Pharmacy. She then moved to the United States to attend college, graduating summa cum laude from Eastern Connecticut State University with a major in Communication and a minor in Political Science. She holds a Masters degree in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins and a Masters degree in African Studies from Yale University. She was a 2005-2006 Hodder Fellow at Princeton, where she taught introductory fiction. Chimamanda is the author of Half of a Yellow Sun, which won the 2007 Orange Prize For Fiction; and Purple Hibiscus, which won the 2005 Best First Book Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the 2004 Debut Fiction Hurston/Wright Legacy Award. In 2009, her collection of short stories, The Thing around Your Neck was published. She was named one of the twenty most important fiction writers today under 40 years old by The New Yorker and was recently the guest speaker at the 2012 annual commonwealth lecture. She featured in the April 2012 edition of Time Magazine, celebrated as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. She currently divides her time between the United States and Nigeria.Intro and Outro music by Kadialy Kouyate performed at TEDxEuston 2011. You can view the full performance here:http://youtu.be/KUfD5WGL3hw.
Check out these beautiful, curvy women going absolutely VIRAL on Buzzfeed!
Big ups to Buzzfeed staffer Peggy Wang, who obviously had the average woman in mind when she selected her favourite images for this article, “33 Impossibly Sexy Boudoir Photo Poses.” I’m always honoured to photograph regular, everyday women, and it’s great to see a more realistic body shape getting some much deserved media love.
1.7 million views and climbing says you’re into the media supporting plus size / curvy / fuller figured women too. Thank you for your continued support. I hope images like these inspire you to give your own boudoir photo shoot a try!
It’s been my pleasure to work with E a few times now. She has a sort of calmness about her that is hard to describe – maybe it’s that unflappable British perseverance, or maybe she’s just wise beyond her years. Either way, she’s a treat to photograph.
We wanted to do something a little different this time around. However, as sometimes happens, we got a bit more than we bargained for.
Our original location plan was all crushed red velvet, romantic bed curtains, and gilded details reminiscent of a Queen’s bedchamber. At the last minute, we were informed there was a problem with the space that meant we would either need to reschedule or make do with another area the venue had available.
Mmmmm. That’s like, my favourite thing to hear ten minutes before we’re meant to start. {sarcasm}
Whatever. E is a trooper, and we were all there and ready to go, so we just decided to channel Tim Gunn and make it work. The space we ended up with was really nice anyway, it just wasn’t what we were planning for.
A deep blue lingerie set, originally planned to coordinate with rich red velvet and jewel tones, served as our first wardrobe option. It wouldn’t have been mine or Eugenie’s first choice for this space, but the pop of colour against the neutral palette of the room turned out pretty cool anyway. Doesn’t Miss E look stunning rocking that pose on the right?
These stripy bed poles gave us an interesting posing accessory. For makeup, we opted for a stained lip and classic lined eyes. Just enough, but not too much.
This is my favourite image from the shoot:) E looks so editorial here, she could have come straight off a magazine spread.
We finished off this shoot with a classic, lacy, cream lingerie set from Agent Provocateur, who are still my favourite lingerie retailer to date. I’ve ordered pieces from other companies recently, but nothing quite lives up to AP’s quality and craftsmanship yet. Honestly, being a boudoir photographer is making me a little snobby about lingerie. The lighter colour palette definitely felt like a more natural fit for this space though.
Also, totally unrelated, something about Miss E’s gaze and hair in this frame on the right reminds me so much of Cher from Clueless. As if.
E, you were graceful and effortless as always. Thanks again for a beautiful shoot:)
