“Natural beauty”,a photo series by London-based photographer Ben Hopper started in 2007 in his effort to challenge what he called societal “brainwashing” done by beauty industry.
Several years later he released his first official set to the Huffington Post.He used the finest examples of beautiful models,actresses,designers and friends to emphasize a woman’s beauty, her armpit hair and the timely reminder that those two things do not occur at the same time.
You see,body hair and armpit hair are frowned upon in almost all over the world.And the artist plays with this belief and challenges it. Seldom do we see women with a lot of body hair.
“As I matured as a person and an artist, I realized I liked armpit hair,” Hopper told The Huffington Post. “I think it can be a beautiful look.”
Alessandra Kurr. Designer.
However while he was preparing his subjects for the shoot, which involved the models having to grow out their armpit hair, he realized that even his subjects weren’t immune to body hair.One model found it so gross that she preferred not to do the shoot.
“The whole point [of the series] is contrast between fashionable female beauty and the raw unconventional look of female armpit hair,” Hopper told HuffPost. “I expect the photos will surprise a lot of people and I guess, in a way, that is one of my intentions.”
Emilia Bostdt. Actress.
The first photo which captured the audience’s attention was the one of Emilie Bostdt,a Swedish actress because he first posted it on social media.It went viral on his facebook page and Hopper decided to adopt the black background for the whole series.
Nevertheless he doesn’t want to tell women what they should and shouldn’t do with their body hair.He only questions and challenges the prevalent belief about it.
“I don’t want to say that I want women to start growing their armpit hair,” Hopper told The Huffington Post. “I just think that it’s a possibility and people shouldn’t dismiss it. I’d like people to just question [beauty standards], the whole thing.”
Olivia Murphy. Fashion student, model.
Ruby Bird. Producer, costumier.
Ayan Mohamed. Graduate architecture student.
Rakel Lindgren. Actress, model
