Monthly Archives: October 2014

Sculptural

Posted on by
Reply

Last week a new friend came to visit me, and she drove a fair distance to get here. College student, who has chosen a difficult field of study.

When she walked into the studio we shook hands and it was immediately easy to see – she was a walking work of art. I have long said that women are by their very nature – are works of art. By their appearance, and how they love and live, but my in new friend’s posture; the way she carried herself, I saw her as a moving piece of sculpture. It was a challenge to make images that did her justice…
IMG_6405w

IMG_6371w

IMG_6431w

They’re My Memories

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve photographed a lot of people, more women than men of course, who have tattoos.

Everyone seems to have at least one. My wife has ink as well, and I have learned to appreciate the art, as well as why the art exists.

My friend Hannah is one who seems to be in front of my camera whenever she gets something new, or has something finished. The one on her shoulder that’s seen in an image here is on the wall at my studio back before the color was added. It’s even more beautiful now. But why?IMG_6215w

Here’s what she told me about the art she wears. “They’re my memories.. all of them are things that make me smile and remember important things.. my sister, my family, and my faith.” Her sister is Kaitlyn. Older than Hannah, and with Autism. Hannah says, “She’s been in my life for the entirety of it.. I never thought I’d be able to understand my big sister more. Until, that is, Hannah decided to major in Special Education.IMG_6207w

Hannah’s big sister, the “light of her life” has inspired her to make the world a better place. She’s a senior in college now, and truly with her life, as well as the ink on her skin, she is Woman as Art.IMG_9350w

A Change of Mindset

Posted on by
1

I met this young woman almost exactly a year ago, and have photographed her several times since then. What I have found about her is a story that’s not unlike many of the beautiful women that I have met in doing what I do.

And that is that they spend considerable time and effort on their outward appearance, but on the inside never feel “sexy or beautiful,” as she wrote me later. While they may have every appearance of happy and confident, on the inside they have, ” always been the girl that was insecure.” (Her words again)

Indeed, you are beautiful in your own way, and the photos that we created together leave no doubt that she is – a work of art.

IMG_4684w

IMG_4613w

IMG_4615w

The Images from the Gallery Show

Posted on by
Reply

I was honored to be able to display several images from Woman as Art and tell the stories of my friends who are in them.

Here’s the images and the text from the show:

30x40_1 30x40_2

 

Women are beautiful.

IMG_8980   IMG_8394

All women are beautiful.

IMG_0955a

 

And they should feel beautiful – on their own terms. Not some terms dictated to them by the media, or someone selling something, or even their husband for that matter.

 

Woman as Art by Ingram Images is dedicated to proclaiming that fact.

That they are beautiful not only on the outside, but on the inside as well. Beautiful in the bringing of children into the world, nourishing and loving those children, being healers, and surviving and flourishing when their health brings them down.

The friends that are exhibited here have become mothers 27 times over. They have survived emotional, physical and sexual abuse at the hands of a man, battle depression and panic attacks, and fight Multiple Sclerosis. They have buried husbands, found new love, and witnessed their grandchildren coming into the world. They are gym rats, and love tattoos, and are yoga instructors. They can play the tuba, have run a half marathon, and are from opposite ends of the political spectrum. They are waitresses, retail workers, nursing students, they have master’s degrees in social work and have helped men get out of prison and back to a productive life. They are actresses, stay at home moms, and most work in addition to being a mother.

30x40_3 30x40_4

One is a second grader that I’ve been fortunate to photograph since she was just a year old.

There is one thing that they all share in common. They all have doubted that they are beautiful. They all fight negativity in where they think their body has failed them. “I felt like my body was ugly, disgusting, and the enemy,” one said to me.

It is possible for women to realize just how beautiful that they are. Every one of these friends who’s beauty you see here (and the ones that declined to make their photos public as well) are just as beautiful on the inside. Some spend hours in the gym, some don’t. Some wear the badges of bringing life into the world. Others will.

I think the complexity of the gifts women have are frequently lost on men, and even those women themselves, far too often.

 

IMG_6216  IMG_2139

 

IMG_2630

IMG_5139