09 Apr Body Acceptance is the Name of the Game | Austin Boudoir Photography

When Ms N inquired about a session, she told me about a rare skin disorder she has called Darier’s Disease. We did her consultation via Zoom, because she’s not local, so she described how this disorder affects her. She said it’s quite unsightly at times and that she felt as though it was all people could see when they looked at her. She thought it made her much less attractive. She said her husband always told her he didn’t see her skin problems, but she wanted to change her own thoughts and perspective.

Her goal for her shoot was to see herself as she is, as well as how everyone else does. She wanted to be able to see herself, with her skin disorder, as a beautiful, sensual woman. I loved her goal of self love and body acceptance. I was excited to hold that space for her. It’s one of my favorite parts of the experience with me — helping my clients see themselves the way everyone else does! Helping them change their perspective.

I did zero skin retouching on the photos below, as requested. Ms N asked me to retouch 1 single photo just to sort of “test” herself. She wanted to see if she felt any differently about her body without her skin disorder… She ended up choosing the un-retouched image in the end.

Sometimes my client’s goal for their shoot is to create something one of a kind for their partner. Sometimes it’s to celebrate their birthday. Sometimes, like in Ms N’s case, it’s to continue on their body acceptance journey.

One thing I’ve found over the 10+ years I’ve spent doing this job – no matter what their goal, every single session ends in my client feeling incredibly brave, excited, inspired and empowered. They all feel like they’re on “cloud 9” and can do ANYTHING.

I’ve worked hard to create a safe, non-judgmental, inclusive space to foster unconditional love and acceptance of yourself.

Ready for your turn? Let’s do this!