The Body Positivity Project

All photographs by Emily Parker

Emily Parker, an 18 year old student, created these photographic images as her ‘A’ level project. She has missed three years of full-time education due to self-image problems and an eating disorder. Having found herself in a photography class by accident, instead of an engineering group, she decided to create a photographic project based on her own experiences. She met most of her subjects in hospital and others at school, others contacted her via social media.

One of Emily’s favourite shoots was of a model she’d met in hospital, who was weight restored. She was about to have her “peg” removed, a big step forward as it meant she no longer needed to take nutrition through a feeding tube. She wanted the photos to celebrate her progress on social media. Emily explains the project in her own words.

“My name is Emily Parker and I am a student photographer currently working on a body positivity and mental health recovery project. All my shoots have been done in Bristol as well as supporting Bristol based artists through my images where I can.

“There is so much negativity in the news recently – especially, at times, around mental health. I’ve gone through severe mental health difficulties and only recently been discharged from two inpatient admissions. I’ve struggled for a long time with my body image, I’ve had quite a few struggles over the years.

“Learning to love yourself, especially the way you look, is hard for anyone. It needs to be tackled head on in a positive way”

“I’ve taken these photos to show the strength in each person, the beauty, the raw, real power each person has. I believe the project supports people to love themselves and helps them grow to accept and admire their body rather than fear and avoid it. For this project I tried not to edit any of the photos.

“I worked with patients, dads, students, brands, and many people of different races, ages, weights, personalities and stories. Learning to love yourself, especially the way you look, is hard for anyone. It needs to be tackled head on in a positive way. Every person captured in these photos has body positivity issues ,whether that be because of mental health difficulties, gender issues, physical illnesses, weight issues or just as we all do. I usually photograph people individually.

“I sometimes do “shoot days” where I work with around six models at an hour per session. I don’t show them their photographs during the shoot. I did this at first, but seeing early images, when I was still setting up the shoot and lighting, knocked their confidence. Now I take the photos and send them at the end of the shoot.

“I am doing collaborations with two fashion brands who support body positivity and mental health photography called Smartsquid and We Are Hairy People, who I head the model programme for. I met We Are Hairy People because they did a workshop for people with eating disorders at my hospital. Their model programme accepts people of any age or size to build up their self-esteem and show others that imperfection is perfection.”