Photographer Jade Beall is on a nationwide mission to celebrate the mother’s body, un-Photoshopped and unretouched. The impetus for the book project, The Bodies of Mothers, started with her own feelings of inferiority of her body after she had her first child. According to Beall:
As I first sat down to think about the beauty of the mother’s body—stretch marks, cellulite, and saggy-ness included—I was immediately struck by how hard we try to hide what we deem as ‘unattractive.’ In this project, women are more then shedding a little clothing; they are tearing away the self-imposed layers, exposing their insecurities and laying vulnerable for all to see. This is what beauty looks like, more than supple skin or tight abs—beauty is the ability to see oneself and the power of creating new life. It is accepting it all, without labeling it good or bad, with hands wide open—no matter how they may shake in the beginning.
