An Australian photographer has shot 100 ordinary women in lingerie as part of a body-positive photo project

A female photographer has set herself the task of giving women in Australia the opportunity to feel comfortable in their own body. Although it was sometimes a difficult and emotional campaign, Amy Herrmann is convinced that the action was worth it. A 26-year-old girl from Adelaide set out to shoot 100 ordinary women of all ages, sizes and shapes in underwear in the photo project Underneath We Are Women ("Under clothes we are all women"). Now that more than a year has passed since the beginning of the project and Amy has already shot almost half of what she planned, she talks about how women's attitude to their bodies changes after filming.

(15 photos in total)

"Every day when we do these shootings, women come in very nervous, and when they leave here, their mood completely changes. I don't think I was ready for this, I rather thought it would be an easy project in which I would shoot a hundred different women, make an album, and that's it. I didn't realize that it would change some women's lives," says the photographer.

Amy has already visited Adelaide, Townsville and Melbourne, and, according to her, the project is gaining momentum. Undressing to your underwear and standing in front of the camera is not as scary as it seems. "We turn on music and let these women relax and create an image that matches their personality," explains the author of the project. "We don't tell them how to pose, the whole point is to photograph them as individuals."

"Few people expect that they will like the result. They think it will be very difficult, but they begin to realize that their personality manifests itself in appearance when they look at photos. To describe their personality, they use the words "unstoppable", "stubborn", "unbending" and the like, and that's the whole point."

In order to capture the inner world of all one hundred women, Amy Herrmann will need outside help. To do this, the photographer has launched a fundraising campaign on the popular crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, where she hopes to raise 30 thousand Australian dollars (about 23 thousand US dollars). "We want the album to be accessible. This will help spread the idea among as many people as possible. We even want it to reach schools, because if I had seen such photos in my youth, I probably wouldn't have had to create such a project," says the photographer.