A while ago I read one of @kaia.ab posts on Instagram about the male gaze and the white female gaze in art, movies, photography, etc. That sparked a conversation between us. I asked her: How would you like to be photographed? How do you see yourself? Her answer is this photoshoot we realised together - but it was born in her mind.
After our shoot Kaia sent me this text:
‘I wrote this inspired by your question:
How do I view me?
A legacy.
A collage of silenced
Voices, erupted in a generation
‘Woke’ enough to listen.
A gradation of blackness,
Curls coiled like grated
Chocolate, bouncing with
My ancestors spirits as I
Learn to embrace them.
Excellence.
How do I view me?
A lot of the time…
forgotten beauty.
I guess the truth is
Blurred by my lack of
Objectivity.
I guess I forget my goodness
When I’m left to my own devices.
My light and my darkness
Surrounded to form my reflection
And I often neglect to analyse
the conversations I have
With myself.
We all get used to our features,
Competing in a society
Fuelled by comparison.
Our inner children shadowed
By our egos and
Our landscape profiteering
From our conditioned insecurities.
But less perfection and
More authenticity…
We may be familiar with our mirrors
And who looks back at us,
But the very things you hate could
Be the very things others love.
While you are here doubting yourself,
Others are afraid of your potential.
The thoughts of yourself today set
The foundations for what
you build tomorrow.
So visualise your highest yourself
And show up as them.
The moon doesn’t apologise for
The way she moves the waves,
Nor does the sun hide away
From places where he’d shine the brightest.
Be like nature, unapologetic
And stunning throughout the seasons.
So, whenever you are ready,
Sit down and confront your present:
How do you view yourself?
~
Thank you for your voice Kaia and for allowing me to see you.
