Zena's Story
When we first launched Mighty Aphrodite in 2004, I had my first set of sexy
portraits taken because we needed some images for our portfolio. I was amazed
at the results and it really gave my self-confidence a boost.
Four years later, after hitting 40 I promised myself that
I would have a photo shoot to mark the milestone where (supposedly) life
begins. But looking in the mirror at the extra lines on my face and the
extra inches around my waist since my last photo shoot made the prospect
of being on the other side of the camera really scary.
It may seem weird, given what I do for a living, but I actually hate having
my photograph taken! When we are on holiday, it's usually me that ends up
taking the photos so that I don't have to be in them. I've spent the last
four years working with hundreds of other women (and a few men too) to make
sure they have an inspiring experience and they leave our studio with a
real sense of achievement and self-assurance. But I kept putting off having
my photo shoot with the excuse that I just wanted to lose a few pounds or
tone up a bit.
I finally decided to face my fear - if we could make all the other women
we have photographed over the years look fantastic, why wouldn't our magic
formula work on me? I did also have the safety blanket of knowing that if
the images did show a few too many wrinkles and I wasn't happy with the
shape of my body that I could edit them to make me look perfect, but I was
hoping that the shoot would help me to see myself in a different way and
accept my body as it is.
I went into the shoot with a very positive
open-minded attitude and was adamant that I would not be overly self-critical,
but would look at the images as I would if we were shooting a client. This
really worked and it stopped me from obsessing over every tiny detail. Even
though I have seen thousands of images of other people shot in our studio,
I was still amazed at how flattering and gorgeous my images were.
It was actually quite an emotional experience looking through my images
afterwards - I didn't realise how distorted my self image actually was.
I think we all have a blueprint in our minds of what the perfect shape is
for a woman based on what we see in the media. In real life, 99.9% of women's
bodies are nothing like this - in fact the majority of the models we see
published have had body re-shaping and skin smoothing applied to their images
so even they are not really that perfect!
When it came to editing my own images, I really felt that I wanted them
to be as natural as possible so that when I look at them, I know that that
is the real me. I did take out spots and a few wrinkles and the odd bit
of cellulite that was visible, but apart from the odd bump here and there,
the body shape is all mine. And I'm not embarrassed to say I love it!
