One of the hardest things for me to put in words is the answer to that question.  Why?  Why do I take the photographs I take?  Why do I seek out the people I photograph?  Why do I have a driving need to share those photos with the world?

In a post I made a few weeks ago about an ongoing body-image project I am participating in, I think I finally found the words.   From that post:

The human body is one of the most beautiful works of art nature has ever produced.  In all of it’s shapes, sizes, colors, ages, genders and conditions, it is beautiful.   One of  the most obscene things this culture has perpetrated is the idea that the human body, any part of the human body, is dirty or ugly or shameful.   Nothing could ever be further from Truth.

I strive to put lie to that idea in all of my work.  My models are, by and large, not professional models.  None of them are what you would call traditional fashion model body types.   I photograph young lithe women in the very early flowering of their adulthood and I photograph middle aged mothers who have lived a long and hard life in their bodies with the scars to show for it.   I photograph large women and well built men.  I photograph professionals and house wives and students.

What all of these people have in common is a desire to see themselves as beautiful, as sexy or desirable, and as others see them.   I have, I think, succeeded in that.

If you look at the timeline of my work, you will see a progression not only of my skills as a photographer, but often a progression of the maturation and changes in the lives of those I shoot regularly.   I have several models who have graced my studio repeatedly over the last seven or eight years.  It has been a wonder watching the changes in their lives really show through the images we capture.

It is this journey through life that I seek to capture.  The beauty is there in all of us.  It grows, matures, blossoms and shines for all the world to see.    That beauty is so often hidden or distorted by the armor we put on every day before leaving the house.   Nudity, open sexuality, playful sensuality, even the darker more disturbing side of BDSM and other such activities all show us a part of that beauty.  You can not hide your body behind labels and poly-cotton blended armor when there is nothing between you and the lens but cool, clear air.

I hope that you, the viewer, can see what I have captured.  Every time I pick up the camera and point it at someone, I strive with all my skill and passion to capture for you what I see when I look at that person.   The vibrancy, the pain, the happiness, the joy, the disappointments, the fear, the love, the life that they’ve lived.

Maybe I have, maybe I haven’t.  But I’m going to keep on shooting and one day, with one shot, I will touch you too.   Blessed be.

Scott