The Body Blog

I’ve photographed nude, boudoir and intimate photos for a little over a decade. When I started photographing the body, I knew I would need to have a comprehensive understanding of it’s parts and their functions. This is the first post of what will likely become a series on fun, interesting, and informative facts about select parts of our magnificent bodies. If there is one area of most interest for the majority of my clients, it would absolutely be the ladies. Breasts are such a distracting source of fascination for both men and women that I figured my first body part post should be a fun fact sheet on breasts. Here are some neat facts about the ladies:

1. The left is usually the larger one. We all know no two breasts (as a part of a set) are the same size, in fact our entire bodies are not precisely symmetrical.

2. Cleavage is not determined by cup size. Breasts that are fuller in the middle, or that sit naturally close together most easily produce the illusion of cleavage, regardless of size.

3. The average cup size worldwide is B.

4. Well over 300,000 women will go under the knife for breast implants this year.

5. Over 100,000 women will undergo breast reduction surgery this year.

6. A 2007 study found that women who get breast implants are three times more likely to commit suicide.

7. Sleeping on your stomach can misshape your breasts over time. It is recommended to sleep on your side with a pillow underneath your breasts for support.

8. 8 out of 10 women wear the wrong size bra.

9. If measured, as if for a recipe, an A cup would yield 8 fluid ounces; a B cup, 13oz.; a C cup, 21oz.; and a D cup, 27oz.

It’s official! I’ll be returning to school at age 28 in pursuit of a BA in Business. I have never graduated from anything. I was out of grade school before they started celebrating “graduation” from elementary to middle school, I quit high school, convinced that I was too smart, started art college at 17 and got bored there too, so I jumped ship, got a job and started a photo studio. Fast forward 10 years – my young, strong, beautiful brother John is weeks from laying down his arms in a nearly 6-year battle with heart disease when I promised him that his 3-year-old daughter, Tatiana, would be taken care of when his last grain of sand fell. It is to honor that promise that I’m returning to school. I want to be better prepared to care for her. I want to be a better role model than I currently am. I want to give her all the things her daddy would have given her if he could, and everything that her little heart desires.

So, off to school I go, full-time there, and full-time at The Body Studio. In other words, sleep and leisure have abruptly become exceedingly rare commodities. Wish me luck.

Though my passion for creativity usually lies alongside a powerful form in a state of undress, I’ll shoot a wedding every now and again. Here are a few engagement pics of a sprightly, young couple of love bunnies that I shot in Savannah over the weekend…

Cool old lop-sided doors. I dig the off balance.

I really like this one. We were switching locations and I caught this just in time.

Happy New Year! Back to business. I thought I’d bring in the new year with the next installment of Amazing and Admirable Women. As ever, feel free to love or despise the women I’ve chosen for this post, and if you like, leave a comment with suggestions on who to add to the next list, or who you think I should have scratched from this one. I hope that you, as I, find inspiration here. Enjoy…

6. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994)

Simply one of the most iconic, stylish and elegant American women, Jackie Kennedy served as the First Lady of the United States during her husband John F. Kennedy’s presidency from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. A voracious reader and literature expert, she became an editor for Doubleday Publishing in later life. Jackie’s poise, position, intellect, commitment to family, discerning style, and social graces made her an American treasure.

What is sad for women of my generation is that they weren’t supposed to work if they had families. What were they going to do when the children are grown – watch the raindrops coming down the window pane?
- Jackie Kennedy Onassis

7. Oprah Winfrey (1954-Present)

Philanthropist, media mogul, tycoon, actress, writer, book critic, producer, superwoman, you can rattle off most any title and Oprah has done it, and has been successful at it. Born in rural Mississippi, to an unwed teenage mother, Oprah’s worldwide reach in various outlets is so grand in scope that she is arguably the most influential person on the planet. Yeah, Oprah is the cat’s pajamas.

Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.
- Oprah Winfrey

8. Joan of Arc (1412-1431)

Visionary soldier Joan of Arc was born a peasant in France. Guided by her visions of divine influence, she was granted audience to King Charles VII, and led the French army to several victories over the English while she was still a teenager. She was captured, tried, and burned at the stake, at 19 years old, in 1431. Joan was beautified in 1909 and canonized a Catholic saint in 1920.

I am not afraid…I was born to do this.
- Joan of Arc

9. Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931)

A crusader for justice, Ida B. Wells was an influential socialist, anti-lynching activist, journalist, newspaper editor, suffragist, and civil rights leader. In a pre-cursor to Rosa Parks’ demonstration of civil disobedience, in 1884, Ida refused to be removed from a railcar on the basis of her color, biting a hand that attempted to move her, and had to be dragged bodily from the car. Born into slavery, Ida was a willing fighter for liberty in post-reconstruction America.

One had better die fighting against injustice than die like a dog or a rat in a trap.
- Ida B. Wells-Barnett

10. Clara Barton (1821-1912)

A strong sense of responsibility and empathy for humanity inspired Clara Barton to found the American Red Cross following the Civil War. She also championed other humanitarian efforts as a nurse, an activist for the women’s suffrage movement, an abolitionist, and speaker for African-American civil rights.

I have an almost complete disregard of precedent, and a faith in the possibility of something better. It irritates me to be told how things have always been done. I defy the tyranny of precedent. I go for anything new that might improve the past.
- Clara Barton

Failure is awesome. Failure teaches. A short story to illustrate: Once upon a time, I had a real job. A suit-and-tie, office-with-windows, nine-to-five, ostentatiously-titled job at a PR firm. I was sitting in the boss’s office with he and another employee going over some Q&A we’d prepared for a client, and, while reading the copy aloud, ran across the word philanthropic. The boss was reading, and he pronounced the word phil-an-THROP-ic, with the stress on the third syllable. I interjected, “You mean phil-AN-thro-pic.”, (stress on the second syllable) in my I’m-so-clever-and-young-and-sure-of-myself, puffy kind of way. My cocksure word-vomit was returned with paralyzing stares from both pairs of eyes. The next two minutes were spent educating me on the proper pronunciation and use of the word phil-an-THROP-ic. I don’t embarrass easily, that was the exception in recent memory. Point is, I will never forget the proper pronunciation of philanthropic. My capital failure resulted in the correct pronunciation of a word being stitched onto the fleshy mush of my brain. Embrace failure of all kinds. Love it. Learn from it.

I have a knack for reminding others how exquisite they are. I think that’s what makes me a unique photographer, a unique person, perhaps. In time, this blog will likely be filled with anecdotes for awesomeness, one-liners that offer sage prescriptions, advice for general success, inspiration, and various etcetera to kick the spirit into high gear.

I recently picked up a book on buddhism for dummies and on one page, a title read, “Buddha: Divine or Human?”. I thought, hmm…I believe humans ARE divine. You are amazing – live like you believe it.