Yes, you read that right.


A lot of people ask me how is it to photograph naked women. "What is the purpose of it?", "Where will these photos end up going?", "Have you been naked in front of a camera before?", "Are these women really comfortable?"...


But before answering those questions, I need to say something very important first: There is a huge difference between sexy nude photos and artistic nude photos.


For me personally, the artistic nude does exist to contemplate the beauty of the body and natural forms, but not to generate sexual desire. They were not produced to satisfy someone's desire or to fulfil some hidden need. They were taken for the only purpose of creating art and admiring the beauty in the human female body. Through them, we feel one with nature. We feel complete, part of something bigger and simply divine, just like everything nature creates.


Beauty for me comes from contemplating the naturalness, simplicity and completeness of being, which strips away any mask, expectation, illusion and perfection. We DON'T NEED TO BE PERFECT in order to be beautiful or to fit in. There is no beauty pattern because every single person and body is unique.


We live in a society where women were told to behave in a certain way, eat certain types of food and make their choices considering someone else's expectations, and all of these misconceptions created a myth that we need to be perfect or act like perfection is a normal thing. Guess what?! IT IS NOT!


I heard something this week that fits perfectly here: “If you accept imperfection, you’re walking in the direction of LIFE, because there is only evolution in what is unfinished, imperfect. When there is perfection, you walk towards death.” And that's how I see us: imperfect beings, endowed with asymmetric traits, traits that mark stories and life pulsating in irregular features. And that, my friends, for itself is the definition of beauty.


So yes, I've been naked in front of an artistic photographer before. And it was magical. It transformed the way I see my body because I learned how to accept that everything is part of the process. We need to develop stretch marks and sagging after pregnancy, because it shows the being we generated in our womb for 9 months. We need to be swollen during our period as our uterus is changing and shedding after preparing all the necessary environment to generate life. We develop pimples, open pores and marks after we produce growth hormones... In other words, all external transformations are the result and consequence of great internal movements. AND HOW GOOD THIS IS!


We should be grateful for all the things our bodies are capable of doing, and not punish ourselves for not having a slimmer waist, bigger boobs and rounder ass. Every woman and trait is wonderful, beautiful and unique!


So I invite you to change your lens. Change your perception about your body, your imperfections and your beauty. How's that old saying... "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"? Let's change our lens!


With love always,


Amanda Salomäo


P.S.: What an HONOR to register the beautiful Samara (the woman on the cover) and be able to share a little of all this beauty and totality that is her being.