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Victoria Janashvili is a real-life body-positivity superhero: Her day job consists of photographing what she calls “Victoria’s Secret-type women” for men’s magazines, whereas she says her side/dream job is photographing “all sizes of women,” sans retouching. Her work in its entirety is a celebration of every single body. Today, the 26-year-old's debut book, Curves, is released — a true realization of that not-so-side-anymore dream job.
“[Curves] happened because a lot of my images with plus size models got a lot of coverage — they got shared, and people put very different slogans with them, like 'Curvier girls are better than skinny girls,' 'This isn’t healthy,' or 'This is obese,'" she reveals. Eventually, Janashvili wanted to take back the narrative around her photography by producing her own book.
After a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign, Janashvili was able to quickly put together a collection that felt like it was serving a specific (and relatable) purpose: to give people the pictures (and stories) that she herself needed to see and hear as a self-conscious teenager.
In the book’s forward, Janashvili wisely directs readers to stop stressing out over comparisons to others and simply adjust their view: “Finding a way to accept the perfection of the shape given to us doesn’t make us more beautiful...but it makes us recognize our beauty — because it’s always been there. It’s only a matter of perception.”
Click through to view a selection of empowering photos and corresponding model excerpts from Curves.
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