© Copyright Laura Dodsworth 2012-2014. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
For Bare Reality, photographer Laura Dodsworth courageously delves into one of the greatest taboos of our time, photographing breasts belonging to one hundred women ranging from the ages of nineteen to one hundred and one. Leading up to the release of the book, Dodsworth will showcase one image per week, accompanied by passages drawn from interviews with each woman.
The breasts documented here, as well as the stories that inform them, encompass a wide variety of experiences and autobiographical reflections. They have nursed children and fostered romantic connections; they have brought pain and been ravaged by cancer. Each breast carries with it the weight of personal histories, of intimate confessionals that undermine societal expectations and exterior judgements.
Despite their diverse backgrounds, each woman’s bare chest becomes an assertion of her ownership over her body, recontextualizing the breast from the glossy pages of magazines and into more nuanced narrative of resilience and beauty.
Some of Dodsworth’s images have been replicated without credit and without her permission. The artist explains that it is critical that she release images only with the accompanying texts, lest the intention and potency of the work be lost. To help Dodsworth tell these stories, please visit Bare Reality’s Kickstarter campaign.