Osmyn J. Oree

“The Girl in The Painting”

Osmyn Oree Photography 2011 

I’ve recently realized that my view on plus-size models and models in general  have been distorted by the media and the views they force onto the general public. When photographing Julia, during our session i felt that she was beautiful in her own skin and as happy as hell about who she was. She was joyful and jolly and after the shoot i realized how shallow and brainwashed i had become. I had a small conversation with Julia while we were shooting about bigger people and bigger models and during the conversation i felt bad because i thought to myself. “Why do people who have a little extra think they are big when they aren’t?” but then after that i noticed that during the shoot i was sort of forcing a label onto her that wasn’t fair. It was like i was calling her a “plus-size” model although she wasn’t and that made me feel terrible as a person. 

The medias “plus-size” model image is something that i should’ve known would affect my work and it did honestly. I have nothing against plus-size models or anything like that. I just felt that after photographing this women and realizing that i was being silly and thinking she was plus size, was stupid. It helped me realize how my views on the body are shaped and it made me think how i photograph the human body even more. 

I hope this doesn’t offend anyone im just getting some thoughts and realizations out there that I’ve been thinking about. Any conversation is welcome on this subject please.