This Is Who I Am

The bodies in this book have been shaped by the full sweep of the feminine experience. They belong to doctors, lawyers, artists, mothers, professors, performance artists—women from all over the country, ages nineteen to ninety-five, of all ethnicities and life experiences. These are ordinary women only in the sense that none is a professional model. They are in all other ways extraordinary—courageous, curious, thoughtful, speaking unflinchingly about their bodies, then allowing themselves to be photographed to inspire other women to make peace with their physical selves.

Certainly, the feminine nude form is not new to artists and photographers. But the portraits in This Is Who I Am, taken by award-winning photographer Rosanne Olson with a steady, non-judgemental eye speak loudly to the American obsession of feminine perfection—slim hips and full breasts, high cheekbones and tiny waists, taut skin and eternal youth—and even more loudly to the way real women, with real bodies and real lives, look. Each of the striking and classically photographed potraits in this book stands on its own. Looked at together they form a tribute to contemporary womanhood that is by turns tender, personal, and moving. This Is Who I Am goes to the heart of these women's lives. It will touch any mother, wife, or daughter, and any husband, son, or father, too.