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Koren Albright photographs women as they are.
She doesn’t use smoke and mirrors (although filmy fabric comes in handy at times) and doesn’t do intensive digital alterations to make subjects look thinner or taller in their photos.
Her philosophy incorporates maximum natural light and minimal posing. It’s all natural, and au naturale.
“Every woman … needs to see herself and believe that she is beautiful,” she says.
But sometimes, that’s difficult to do.
She tells of one pregnant client who first admired herself in Albright’s photos, calling the results beautiful. Then she asked, “ ‘Am I allowed to say that, because they’re pictures of me?’ ”
Of course you are, Albright responded. That’s the whole point.
Her photos celebrate feminine beauty – men, when they appear, are “excellent props” – be it with wrinkles or cellulite. Seeing the variety of stretch marks on other women has made her appreciate her own even more, she says.
She and her husband, Joe, run a fine-art photography business (www.albrightcreativeimagery.com), which they started in 2000 when they lived in Arizona.
They shoot pregnancies and births, newborns, nudes, weddings and engagements.
“My style is very organic and natural,” she says. “It’s like weaving, with light and pictures.”
The Albrights don’t have a studio; instead, they head to their subject’s homes or favorite places to capture those “sacred and sweet” moments with infants and children, she says.
The couple, who have three kids of their own, know how difficult it can be to capture the fleeting expressions or silly moments that often lead to the best photos. That’s why they often work together, both with camera in hand, to roam around and snap away, not waiting for the posed smiles.
When you go into your subject’s environment, you get out of your comfort zone and have to think on your feet more, Joe Albright says, which makes for better pictures.
Those slice-of-life moments can create classic images: a pregnant woman shapes a heart with her hands that are resting on her belly. Another woman rests her newborn against her knees, minutes after giving birth in the bathtub.
There are plenty of clients who aren’t pregnant but want to celebrate themselves at another life stage, or give photos to their husbands. There have been 20-something women who feel their bodies will never look better and want a photographic memento for themselves, and 50-something women who appreciate the mature body they’ve grown into. For some, it seems that the experience is the most important part, and the resulting photos are secondary.
One woman took inspiration from 1940s’ pin-up models; another donned a dress before swimming in a lake. Koren Albright remembers one woman who perched in a tree, with some of her stretch marks mimicking the lines in the bark.
Posing nude, even discreetly, is a way to feel vulnerable and strong at the same time, she says. (She’s been on the other side of the lens, too.)
And it’s an antidote to a culture that promotes a generic, one-size-fits-all approach to acceptable female beauty. Many professional models have had cosmetic surgery, and then their photos are digitally altered to create an image that is literally unattainable, Albright says.
Her clients “feel the things we’re judging ourselves by … are not real, are not fair,” she says.
That’s why the Albrights started the “I am” project several years ago, taking photos of women who weren’t professional models, which they hope to turn into a book someday.
The goal: to show the world that “this is what’s natural, this is what’s beautiful,” Koren Albright says.
