lilli waters

Anja
2015

Anja documents forty-one women, confronting the fears and stigmas associated
with the perception of women's bodies in today's world of unrealistic and idealised
standards of how women should look.    

I am not interested in sexualising the form of my subjects, but I am on a quest to find
self-compassion and emotional awareness, in both myself and my audience.       
Photographing these women helps me in my search for these things, and perhaps
helps my subjects to find a moment of self-acceptance and recognition, which is deserved
and should be encouraged much more within our culture.   

There's a lot to expose in terms of the way we have internalised sexism and sexualised aggression. 
I feel like, as a photographer, I am a witness to women's conditioning, and I am trying to offer a different perspective. In my work, I want to awaken a preferable alternative. My message is
therefore transformative, supporting a questioning of the norm.       

Anja is about an ongoing exploration of women’s potential, the expansion of their perceptions
of self. This series is a search for self-awareness and compassion by reconnecting to our place
in the natural world through vulnerability and discovery.