Period stained underwear. Armpit hair fashioned with brightly coloured clips. Stretch marked buttocks and boobs with spots are just some of the images belonging to Seattle based photographer, Ashley Armitage. The young feminist photographer recently received her BFA in Photomedia and focuses her work on female representation. Ashley’s vision is to have women painted by women. Her work has brought up mixed responses on Instagram however, with people questioning her choice to not use the stereotypical cis model as her muse. Despite the backlash on Instagram, Ashley perseveres with her aim of authentic female representation.
Ashley found her femme driven meaning through her frustration with the way in which the media represents femininity. You know the imagery all too well of thin, white, able-bodied gender normative women. Ashley’s close female friends are captured in intimate portraits that oppose the principal narrative that society has constructed surrounding the meaning of being female. Showing femmes with natural, diverse beauty, Ashley photographs real girls with real bodies, imperfections untouched, in a dreamy, hazey pastel dream.
“I create images of the female body because historically these images have been controlled by men. We were always the painted and not the painters. I’m trying to take back what’s ours and explore what it means to have a body that has always been defined by a male hand”
Ashley states that her shoots often materialize when she is simply hanging out with her girl gang and she happens to have her camera around to capture the most intimate moments of girlhood, moments that I believe are eloquently described by Britney Spears in her song, ‘I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman’ released in 2001.
She believes that in order to change the way in which the female body is viewed resistance is the first natural step before acceptance. Deeply embedded in Ashley’s work is her message about body positivity and her desire for every woman to be able to look on a tv screen or flip through a magazine and see themselves represented there in a light that is honest yet retains beauty. For me that is where the true importance of photography such as Ashley’s lies, is in the tasteful way that she is able to authentically document what she sees and show the absolute beauty of all of her sitters regardless of what society might consider to be imperfections or out side of the norm.
I look at Ashley’s work and I see myself represented. This is a rather astounding fact as I am sure that many woman today look through magazines, look at models and we can’t relate to that fake image of a person who is not even a person (because the images are often made to be so idyllic due to applications of make up and airbrushing as well as photo shop).
In a recent study by Yahoo health it has been indicated that 94% of American teenage girls have fallen victim to body shaming at some point in their life. The statistics are gruesome and in my own experience as a photographer working with girls and young women for the better part of my photographic explorations, body insecurities is something that so many young females struggle with daily. Having been a victim of body shaming myself, I like many women out there are tired of trying to be something we just aren’t. Like us, don’t like us, it’s ok because we like ourselves. Why on earth are we subject to these hyper unrealistic fake standards that are not achievable in any way or fashion?
The Instagram handle Ladyist is suitable to Ashley’s work as she’s trying to changed these ideas of girlhood that have been so imprinted on us from a young age. Her work is relevant as it seeks to create a shift in not only how femme bodies are seen but in regards to how femme bodies view themselves. We can only hope that from photographers like Ashley change is inspired and that more females will start accepting themselves for the beautifully diverse beings we are.
