View allAll Photos Tagged Bodyimage
So much has worn me down health-wise this year & I’ve felt so far from myself because of stress.
I’ve finally been able to verbalize and admit to myself that this has been the hardest year of my life since 2010 when my mother died. I knew selling a home & buying in another state would be stressful no matter what. What I don’t think I could have anticipated was a year like 2024 where we both got Covid for the first time (which had lasting impacts) and the genocide in Gaza ravaging the world. I fundamentally changed and that year left me a different person than who I have ever been. Physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Following that with a year that started with 70 days of varying degrees of headache to all encompassing migraines (leading to an MRI and medical action plans).
Then we started in earnest to do the home dance. Allowing people into my home repeatedly with no real control turned me inside out. My agoraphobia sky rocketed and everything felt impossibly hard.
From the start of the year we’ve had to face a new type of nightmare in our news, US domestic government, and life overall. Everything feels surreal most of the time.
I’ve had such a fog in my mind while I more or less had to shut entire parts of myself down and compartmentalize until I could get through other more immediate needs on my energy and time.
The stress, the uncertainty, the discomfort lead to me more or less giving up on having a human body. I rarely drank water, I stopped moving my body entirely, I spent every moment I wasn’t actively doing The Things I Had To Do™️ (or occasionally taking photos) laying down or crying. I could barely wash my face, brush my teeth, or take a shower. I know my photo stream gives one of those picture perfect storylines of how the last year has gone because I am pretty ok at composition and framing (and admittedly take good self portraits).
The reality is I’ve struggled more overall than I had ever let on.
This week I’ve been sorting photos & found some that dusted my brain off. Photos that reminded me of how even when some years like 2017 (the photos with just my torso) when I had just bought my first house with my ex and realized the relationship may not last because my sobriety hadn’t really changed anything between us. Or 2020 (the photo of me lying down in a Skeletonwitch tshirt and the 3 photo collage) the year of Covid and the year I finally ended that relationship after giving it everything I had for 3 more years while that global pandemic was happening.
Both were unimaginably difficult I was still able to lean into reflection, listening to my body and mind, and working to find the life changes I needed to be a happier and more balanced Nix. The photos feel like a talisman or a magical catalyst to remind me of my power. My routines are returning to me and I can feel the joy they bring. I am waking up.
If you’ve read this far, thank you. This is stuff I usually keep for my online blog, but I was feeling verbose and brave and wanted to share here too. I really value the connections I’ve been making being back on Flickr and the site and the people have been one of the bright spots for me through all of this.
I asked her what she was specifically "so over it". She responded: "everything". Then she told me not to frame her face in the photograph, but only to take a picture of the Tshirt.
A much younger woman was standing behind the older man. She was wearing black shorts. One of her eyes can be seen at the top of the frame.
I'm so tired of body image. Everyone has such a skewed perception of their own body and I'm starting to realize it.
It's so unhealthy.
Looking in the mirror and picking yourself apart for every little "flaw". It sucks and it hurts and it's so hard.
It's hard to get out of your own head and just love yourself.
I don't.
I've struggled with my body image for years. I went from being way too skinny in high school to gaining a "normal" weight and now feeling too big. I am constantly griped on for commenting on my own weight and saying that I feel fat, but don't we all kind of do that? We all envy some other body, even if we don't say it aloud.
I'm tired of it.
I just want to feel comfortable with myself.
I need to make that happen.
I know this one is a little bit obvious for this exhibtion but as you will see in my comment below I needed to do it as part of my personal recovery...
I have been so touched by the comments I have received from flickr people over the last couple of days.
My hope was that by telling my story it would help others to understand the illness a little or for those who are suffering/have suffered to not feel so alone.
From what I have heard from you it's working!
I am hoping to have some kind of online space for comments about the exhibition. When I've got something sorted I will let you know. Please do contact me if you'd be willing to let me add any of your comments, responses and thoughts to an exhibition logbook type thing - whether that's online or in print.
Many thanks to you all...
Experiments for an exhibition about a journey to recovery from anorexia.
I am working on 6 images of "illness" and 6 images of "recovery".
This exhibition is a big challenge for me but it is something I really want to do. So, I guess the first step is to post a few of my "works in progress" on flickr.
The exibition will be on show from 6th February in Brindley Place in Birmingham. Details to follow...
Met this great couple on Whyte ave today who were spreading a very positive message about body image.
This photograph is a following to my previous upload. They are part of the same series 'Does it seem like I am looking for an answer' - A series I made for my current university module 'Documents and Fictions'.
In relation to ‘Documents and Fictions’ this body of work falls into ‘the in-between’. The portraits have been set up but the stories behind the photographs are based on truth, reality and research, even a viewers own opinion and anecdotes they can relate to these photographs, prove, to bring some fact, thus documenting the truth of how women feel and think when dealing with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. The body of work has been named ‘Does it seem like I am looking for an answer’ this is to enhance and provoke the feeling of the subjects being lost, confused and helpless – thought to be common symptoms of many mental health disorders.
(If you want to find out further information about the body of work, check out the photograph before this one and keep coming back for the rest of the series to be uploaded. Each photograph will have further information. OR visit my website where further information and the whole body of work is together - www.kacieball.co.uk )
So much has worn me down health-wise this year & I’ve felt so far from myself because of stress.
I’ve finally been able to verbalize and admit to myself that this has been the hardest year of my life since 2010 when my mother died. I knew selling a home & buying in another state would be stressful no matter what. What I don’t think I could have anticipated was a year like 2024 where we both got Covid for the first time (which had lasting impacts) and the genocide in Gaza ravaging the world. I fundamentally changed and that year left me a different person than who I have ever been. Physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Following that with a year that started with 70 days of varying degrees of headache to all encompassing migraines (leading to an MRI and medical action plans).
Then we started in earnest to do the home dance. Allowing people into my home repeatedly with no real control turned me inside out. My agoraphobia sky rocketed and everything felt impossibly hard.
From the start of the year we’ve had to face a new type of nightmare in our news, US domestic government, and life overall. Everything feels surreal most of the time.
I’ve had such a fog in my mind while I more or less had to shut entire parts of myself down and compartmentalize until I could get through other more immediate needs on my energy and time.
The stress, the uncertainty, the discomfort lead to me more or less giving up on having a human body. I rarely drank water, I stopped moving my body entirely, I spent every moment I wasn’t actively doing The Things I Had To Do™️ (or occasionally taking photos) laying down or crying. I could barely wash my face, brush my teeth, or take a shower. I know my photo stream gives one of those picture perfect storylines of how the last year has gone because I am pretty ok at composition and framing (and admittedly take good self portraits).
The reality is I’ve struggled more overall than I had ever let on.
This week I’ve been sorting photos & found some that dusted my brain off. Photos that reminded me of how even when some years like 2017 (the photos with just my torso) when I had just bought my first house with my ex and realized the relationship may not last because my sobriety hadn’t really changed anything between us. Or 2020 (the photo of me lying down in a Skeletonwitch tshirt and the 3 photo collage) the year of Covid and the year I finally ended that relationship after giving it everything I had for 3 more years while that global pandemic was happening.
Both were unimaginably difficult I was still able to lean into reflection, listening to my body and mind, and working to find the life changes I needed to be a happier and more balanced Nix. The photos feel like a talisman or a magical catalyst to remind me of my power. My routines are returning to me and I can feel the joy they bring. I am waking up.
If you’ve read this far, thank you. This is stuff I usually keep for my online blog, but I was feeling verbose and brave and wanted to share here too. I really value the connections I’ve been making being back on Flickr and the site and the people have been one of the bright spots for me through all of this.
Photo Session. 2013
Pandemic Self Care. Processing pics from the boneyard (my “vault” that stores pics I have taken, but never processed and/or posted). Stay safe everyone.
Fitness and Lifestyle photo session with Victoria Garrick on Tuesday, June 25, 2019 at the Tongva Park in Santa Monica, CA.
Photo by Matt Pendleton for Matt Pendleton Photography
I think everybody should try to be comfortable in their own skin. The reality is that it's hard, very hard, whether you're big, small, wide, or tall. Socially, my body type would be identified has "skinny," but I still struggle with body image from time to time. I have cellulite and stretch marks. My stomach has rolls when I sit. I gained 15 pounds in a month recently. My size makes me biased because I've never experienced being anything more than "skinny." But your body type doesn't define you (unless you want it to, of course). As long as you're taking care of yourself, you are who you are. You were born into the body you have, so you might as well enjoy it while you have it. Every curve or lack of curves every roll, every jiggle, every indention, every bone that pokes out. You get what I'm saying.
I used to not enjoy taking portraits of other people, but now I do. I love it, actually. My goal when it comes to photographing others is to capture the beauty someone may not see, and to make people feel beautiful/handsome/whatever adjective you'd like to identify with!
Polly smokes illicitly in her bathroom. Residents at the Renfrew Center for eating disorders are only permitted to smoke during designated breaks on the smoke porch.
Get thee to a plastic surgeon, you tragic post-pregnancy ladies, you!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Mikhaela B. Reid * Angry Cartoonist
cartoons@mikhaela.net * www.mikhaela.net
• Out now! | “ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT MIKHAELA!” by Mikhaela Reid, with foreword by Ted Rall. See why Fun Home author Alison Bechdel says "Mikhaela Reid's cartoons are right *$%@ing on!" Buy now at: www.lulu.com/content/781402
It's strange to know your body has changed and not to be able to tell. People tell me I'm thinner. People tell me I've lost my curves. I feel like I'm the same person I've always been. But it's started to dawn on me that my Ass-Pants, the ones that were skin-tight and fabulous, make me look like a gangsta rapper.
I had to steal these pants from my mom She's four inches shorter than me. For months, they've been the only pair that aren't falling off of me (in fact, they're Too tight for my taste). Yesterday I finally gave in and went clothes shopping.
The pants I bought are a size I haven't worn since I was 12 years old. And they're literally less than half the size of my favourite pants from two summers ago. I'm sure there's a brand discrepancy, and maybe sizes have grown, but even with all of that, it's a little bizarre.
I don't see myself as any different. But I've notice people refer to me as a tiny person rather than a curvy person. It's like I've lost a little piece of my identity.
- did someone 'share' this on tumblr or something? im just wondering why it has so many more views in comparision to my other pictures on here! If you would message me how you came across this photo I'd actually appreciate that alot! -
Sunday >>>>>
15/335
Today was lazy! I woke up, did hw/ napped /ate /watched tv /went on the computer, until 6 I went to target with my friend Heidi. I got this sports bra, a tshirt, and Valentine cards. Every year my parents bought my supplies to make my own instead, and so I feel weird having this cheap little paper cards with dumb cartoons and sayings on them now. Like I'm cheating.
>>>>>
But anyway I took this picture to focus on something else: FLAWS. Everyone has flaws as well as things they love about their body and personality! But it's only the personality we pick, and not our bodies. And I truley, actually, for real belive that everyone's _BODY_ is beatiful if they take care of it; hygiene, eat healthy, excersise, watch their face, etc. I think if you do that that, your beautiful. If everyone had thin legs, big boobs, was tall, long eye lashes and a small nose, ears that didnt poof out and teeth with no gaps, wouldnt we all be boring? People say "your gap makes you YOU" or whatever, but I wish people just knew that and didn't think of it in a negative way at all! I wish we didn't have to compare ourselves to eachother so much. I have, and I still do. One of my resolutions was to compare myself less, and I've really stuck with that so far. So I'm trying not to think of my "flaws" as flaws.
For example, this picture. I hate wearing sports bras because I have... very little to fill it? To phrase it like that. And I've always hated that! Other girls show off their cleavage, and the guys stare at it, girls brag about going up a size, they wear tight shirts, etc. I've always been self concious of it. But this picture shows I'm trying to change my outlook on that, there's nothing I can do about it, and if anything, it means I know that a guy will like my for my _personality_. Even celebrities like Kate Hudson share the same "flaw" as myself.
What's your "flaw"? What's something you love?
I love my stomach. I like my height, I'm 5' 7". I like how i see further into people, like I can pick up their feelings/thoughts easier. I feel intune with people. I like that I have found people I can tottaly be myself around- laughing til I pee, being so open; this shows I really don't have to change anything about myself.
An unusual "flaw" i love on other people is a gap in their front teeth. I find it adorable! If I had one, I would tottaly embrace that.
check out www.seventeen.com/health/tips/body-peace-pledge or many other websites if you feel self concious and have trouble getting over it.
Wow that was REALLY long. You don't have to read it all obviously but I'm intrested in knowing if you do.
Shot for my advanced portraiture class. We were assigned to represent issues regarding body image, beauty, body modification, etc. Part of a 2 part series.
"The body may be the home of the soul and the pathway of the spirit, but it is also the perversity, the stubborn resistance, the malign contagion of the material world. Having a body, being in the body, is like being roped to a sick cat."
margaret atwood