Laura Dodsworth
In ‘Bare Reality: 100 women and their breasts’ 100 women bare all, bravely sharing un-airbrushed photographs of their breasts alongside intensely personal stories about their breasts and their lives.
Creating ‘Bare Reality’ has been an incredible two year adventure. I’ve met some amazing women who shared deeply personal stories with me. It’s transformed how I feel about my breasts and my body. I feel more tender about myself as a woman and for the female experience in general. Now I am finally ready to share some of the project and hopefully - if the Kickstarter campaign hits its target - publish the book, I can only hope it will inspire and move others.
Please tell us a bit about the process of meeting, photographing and interviewing the women for the upcoming book.
It’s taken two years to get to this stage! I set out to find 100 women who would broadly represent us all. Women aged from 19 to 101 years old took part in ‘Bare Reality’, sized AAA to K, of different sexualities and different ethnicities. From Buddhist nun to burlesque dancer, strippers to social workers, cancer survivors, extended breast-feeders, women who couldn’t breastfeed or didn’t want to, career women, stay at home mums, women with eating disorders, a club night promoter whose pseudonym is ‘Captain Hello Titties’, and so many more.
Sometimes, as I drove across the country to meet a complete stranger, I’d feel surprised at what an unusual project I was undertaking. Meeting, photographing and interviewing 100 women about their breasts is a little left-field. It was an adventure! I had to do a lot of asking around and call outs on Twitter on Facebook to find everyone. Sometimes the women who took part where my best evangelists, finding new recruits for me. One night I went to a lap-dancing club so I could ask lap-dancers to take part - which they did.
Why are breasts generally a subject for debate in the media?
Breasts mean different things to different people. Their primary biological purpose is to feed our babies. At the same time, in Western culture they are considered a woman’s single most significant sexual attribute, our sexual calling cards. To some they are a symbol of motherhood and womanhood. They can be erogenous zones. Yet to others they bring disappointment, inconvenience, and even health problems.
We see images of breasts everywhere in the media and yet images of ‘real’ breasts, and actual breasts themselves, are almost never seen. Breasts are taboo hidden away beneath clothes. Although that’s not true in all cultures, there are plenty of societies and countries where breasts are not seen as inherently sexual and toplessness is normal.
The media in the UK often presents women in a titillating way. Women’s bodies and breasts are used to sell all kinds of things, from perfume, to cars, to newspapers. I have always been fascinated by the dichotomy between women’s personal lives and how they are depicted in the media; between how we feel about breasts privately and how they are presented for public consumption.
So many motivations came together and crystallised. In creating Bare Reality I wanted to re-humanise women through honest photography and interviews, present our breasts as they really are and burst the ‘fantasy bubble’ of the youthful, idealised and sexualised breasts presented by the media.
I could say more about what inspired me to create Bare Reality, but I think you really have to read the book. I have taken part too, but unlike the other women I am not anonymous. My photograph and story are the hundredth in the book and the ‘afterword’. I talk in more depth there about the motivations that lay behind this profoundly personal project. So, please go to www.kickstarter.com, search for Bare Reality, please support the project and help me bring the book to life!
How challenging was it to talk to the women about their most imitate aspects of their lives?
We love telling our stories, and hearing other people’s stories. I love a good talk! The interviews are at the heart of the project. Bare Reality explores what it means to be a woman, and makes women subject, not object. Breasts are interesting in themselves, but they are also a catalyst for discussing intimate aspects of their lives as women, such as growing up, sexuality, motherhood, breastfeeding, relationships, body image, health, cancer and ageing.
The stories are fascinating and sometimes we touched upon intimate, and even raw, subjects. We talked about some absolutely beautiful moments in people’s lives right the way through to everyday experiences of women, through to painful experiences. There were a few occasions when women cried. I felt emotional too.
During some of those conversations I could feel a two way healing process. Talking is cathartic, and so is listening. Sharing our stories is powerful. I think it’s what women do.
What surprised you most about putting the book together?
I don’t think I would have anticipated how long it would take! The creative process involved in a project like this is a huge journey in terms of time, but also emotionally and intellectually.
One thing that surprised me was how much my own feelings changed. Bare Reality has changed me, and changed how I think and feel about women. It has transformed my relationship with my breasts. Quite simply, I like myself more as a woman, and I like my breasts more.
What is next for you?
I am going to be really focussed on the Kickstarter campaign for the next five weeks. I dearly hope the target is reached so I have the funds to finish the production and printing of the book. I would like to do justice to the incredible, brave and inspiring women who took part. I would also like as many people as possible to engage with the work. I hope it will move and inspire people and maybe even transform their relationship with breasts. Beyond that, I have some projects up my sleeve….