Sixteen sheets of paper. Sixteen women who trusted and surrendered to the process of showing their unfiltered selves to me. I asked them, “I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.” Then I asked them to write and then sit in front of my lens without makeup or hairstyling to show me their most raw and vulnerable selves. Most of them didn’t know what to expect. Most of them were nervous or scared. Many of them don’t like having their picture taken. But they did it anyway.

Beauty isn’t always the perfectly styled picture where we look our brightest. Beauty sometimes lies in the complexity of our shadows and light, in our raw and vulnerable selves. Beauty lies where we stand in our truth, believing we are whole as we are. Beauty emerges when we trust and surrender.

The RAW portrait project is officially wrapped up and I am working on the next iteration of RAW. For those of you interested in experiencing a RAW portrait session for yourself, contact me to book a session.