Baring It All with the I AM Project
What better way to launch the New Year than celebrating ourselves at our most honest, natural, and raw state of confidence? The I AM Project, by photographer Angelika Buettner, is a powerful, age-positive movement that celebrates older women, redefines beauty, and promotes self-confidence.
Angelika Buettner’s book that inspired a movement. You might recognize covergirl Simone Silverman from her previous GG50 interview, The Woman Behind the Silver Women!
Buettner started her passion project to inspire women to accept themselves as they are and embrace their bodies with positivity through the process of being photographed in the nude. The project has now been adapted into a stunning book of photographs and testimonials of 121 diverse, real women between 40 and 99 years of age.
““I have long taken pictures of people, now I have perfected the art of capturing the spirit. Through the photos, I capture the feelings and sensations that women had lost for themselves: confidence, beauty, sensuality, strength, power, authenticity and the simple fact of accepting to be.””
But it’s not just about the women’s bodies. The process of being photographed nude is “about falling in love within oneself, accepting so-called flaws and overcoming the fear of being judged, to stop looking outward. It is not about nudity, it is about the naked soul as it is.”
The women in the photographs celebrate their bodies and the life experience they represent. They bare their shapes, scars, and stretch marks in un-retouched, intimate portraits.
““It is not about nudity, it is about the naked soul as it is.””
Beyond the book, I AM is an ongoing movement, inspiring women to connect and share their stories through video and social media. The “I AM” Conversations validate what we’ve always known: that decades of life experience matter.
At Girls Gone 50, we believe age is NOT just a number. It’s the time we took to accumulate the confidence, wisdom, and experiences highlighted by these “I AM” Conversations. The brief interviews, available on Youtube and the I AM blog, “reframe negative narratives about aging and celebrate life's most natural journey.” That’s a mission we can get behind.
You can read more about Angelika, her book, and the I AM Movement by visiting https://www.iam-themovement.com.
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