Ashley Armitage: Photos show women beyond old beauty ideals

The photographer Ashley Armitage from New York is no longer interested in smoothly retouched model photos. Each of her pictures on Instagram celebrates female bodies in their very natural form. Whether slim or fat, young or old, with stretch marks, armpit hair, scars, wrinkles or dents – Ashley Armitage wants to show the bodies of women in all their diversity, including all the supposedly imperfect areas that are still not often shown in the media ,

Her wish is for women with her pictures rid of all the old ideals of beautythey still face every day. "In the media we see thin, white, perfect shaved girls whose photos have been edited with Photoshop to meet an exclusive beauty standard. My photos are designed to free women from these standards by seeing that there are many images of beauty. "

How important and liberating photos like Ashley's are are shown by the many enthusiastic comments from women about their photos on Instagram. "Your pictures look so gentle and dreamy, beautiful," it says for example, and: "These are breathtaking pictures. The light, the landscape, their body and expression. So relaxed." Or:

Thank you! So nice to see bodies that look like bodies.

Of course there are also critical voices, but Ashley can deal with them well: "For some people it is uncomfortable to see the pictures, because they show bodies as they are seldom represented. But that is part of it and is the first step that can change something."

No wonder, then, that Ashley is extremely motivated to publish more and more such pictures. It is her wish that women really feel represented in the media of the future. "I think it's just really encouraging to see pictures that you can really relate to."

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