Fearless: Shit Just Got Real

Fearless: Shit Just Got Real

Okay, so I thought we got this party started yesterday but clearly I just didn’t know.  Today has been the most incredible, FUN, fulfilling and amazing day of my entire life.  This isn’t hype or hyperbole or PR nonsense, this group of women is utterly amazing and inspiring on every level, and watching them unfold into their most confident, happy, beautiful selves is just so wonderful I can’t get over it.  The friendships that are developing are so fantastic, and I haven’t even started talking about the photos- oh gods, the photos.  Boudoir photography doesn’t know what happened to it today.  This place, these people, are pulling art out of me like never before and it actually hurt to stop shooting this evening.

Boudoir photography at Race and Religious

In case you haven’t read the earlier posts, you should know that at this point we’re all pretty comfortable with each other.  We gave up nudity taboos early in the day- everyone here has all the usual uncertainties and self consciousness about their bodies, but around here we’re learning it doesn’t need to matter anymore.  So I announced this morning that it was time to feel pretty, and asked everyone to wear clothes they were happy to be photographed in anytime they were home at R&R.  The result was a day of lingerie and showgirl costumes and a whole lot of laughter and bonding and getting over our fears.  We shot in the beautiful loft full of soft light and lace, on staircases and in windows, against time-worn brick and old stone pillars and lounging by the pool and even in the old slave quarters, a place where the air feels heavier somehow and sound carries differently.  It was magical.

I would never have stopped- I really think I’d still be shooting without food or drink or sleep or anything but air and art- if it weren’t for the arrival of our burlesque instructor, the utterly adorable sexpot Cherry Brown.  This girl had moves like nobody ever and had us in stitches learning the art of seduction and striptease, hip bounces and boa flicks, shimmies and struts.  Well, wait- many of us learned to shimmy.  Some of us *cough- Meg* *cough- me* may be fundamentally shimmy-impaired.  But I’m on a mission now, so expect to see me working it until I can shimmy like a master.  Imma be shimmying my way through the grocery store, down the street, shimmying at parent teacher conferences- it’s gonna happen, baby.

I have more to write about this incredible day, because it doesn’t stop there and there’s so much more to say about everything, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for the rest (more details and photos) because I need to sleep now.  ‘Night all.

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