This Is Who I Am - our beauty in all shapes and sizes is a book of discreetly nude photographs and stories of 54 ordinary women between the ages of 19 and 95. It is scheduled for nationwide release in April 2008 by Artisan Books,

The idea for this book started in 2001 with a client, Mary, who wanted a business portrait done for her web-site. Before we scheduled the shoot, however, she wanted to lose 15 pounds. Within a few weeks I got a call from her designer saying that Mary had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer. She had started chemotherapy and was scheduled for surgery within a week. Even though she hadn’t lost the weight, she wanted to do the portrait shoot right away. During the session, Mary asked me if I would do something she had never done before: photograph her in the nude so she could remember her body in its pre-surgery beauty.

Suddenly the extra weight no longer mattered. Suddenly, faced with a serious diagnosis, she seemed to find a new-found tenderness for her body.

After the shoot I began to think of all the women I have photographed in my career. Few women I have met have been satisfied with their bodies. Few meet the standards created by the media over the past two generations—tall, willowy, and wrinkle-free.

Women are so harshly judging of themselves (and others), often due to falling short of the media’s standards. I wondered if I created a book of photographs, with bodies and minds revealed, would such a project help women see themselves with more compassion? By looking at the stories of others, could we create some kind of conversation among friends, sisters, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives about what we find beautiful rather than what we find lacking?

I started the project slowly—with friends. All photographs were done in my studio, all with the same backdrop. I photographed and gathered interviews as I went along. Some of the interviews were derived from questionnaires I gave to the subjects. In some cases, when a woman felt that she couldn’t express herself well enough in writing, I interviewed her in person. After I photographed willing friends I received referrals from others. When More magazine ran an excerpt of the nearly-finished project in 2007, I received calls from women around the country who wanted to participate. I rarely asked a woman more than once but in some cases it took two or three years for someone to decide. It is a very brave thing to come out of one’s anonymous life to be so completely revealed in a book. But nearly everyone who participated felt it she was doing it to help others

The stories in the book reflect a diversity of experiences including health, illness, youth, pregnancy, menopause, anorexia, obesity, sexual abuse and aging. I describe the book as a mirrored ball in which the viewer will likely see her own reflection. My hope is that in this shared community, we will recognize the richness and beauty not only in ourselves but in others, as well.

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