39 countries… 116 photographers… 5,000+ stock images… Groundbreaking redefinition of beauty with #ShowUs…
“70% of women still don’t feel represented in media and advertising. 71% want to see these industries do more to portray women of diverse physical attractiveness – including age, race, shape, and size. They are telling us loud and clear that it’s time to change our definition of beauty.”– Dove Impact of Beauty Stereotypes Quant Study 2019
Representation matters.
Seeing people who look like you matters. Seeing people who share the same values, love the same things, and enjoy the same activities matters. Redefining what it means to be considered beautiful matters. Breaking down institutionalized messages around beauty and oppressive standards of beauty for women matters.
So, when Girl Gaze reached out to me late last year to be part of an incredible movement called #ShowUs, I was deeply honoured. To be handpicked as one of 116 photographers around the world from 39 countries, in my case – representing Sweden, was humbling.
Keeping it silent was even harder.
Alongside my fellow talented photographers across the globe, we collectively created 5,000+ stock images – the world’s largest stock photo collection created by women, non-binary and female-identifying people.
Being a part of this project is so profound for me on many levels. As a professional photographer of African descent (Nigeria) based in Sweden, I work very hard to create space and to represent, so we are seen too.
Thank you Dove, Girl Gaze, and Getty Images for your incredible investment in this Nigerian photographer whose dreams knows no bounds.
Meet the two amazing women I was privileged to photograph for this history-making project.
Meet Linda
Linda Mutawi is a film producer, entrepreneur, and visual storyteller of Jordanian descent behind production company Fikra. Founded in 2015 and based in Stockholm, Fikra’s mission is to develop, facilitate and implement creative projects between Scandinavia and the Middle East, and aiming to become the natural partner for bi-cultural endeavours.
Meet Kimberly
USA Today bestselling African-American author Kimberly Golden-Malmgren (pen name – Kim Golden) delves into complex issues surrounding love and relationships across color lines in her series of novels. “I like reading stories about people who are different, who see past the differences and fall in love. And those are the stories I also enjoy writing. I write stories for people who know that love comes in many colors,” shares Golden.
About the #ShowUs movement
Girlgaze partnered with Dove, one of the world’s most iconic beauty brands and pioneers of Real Beauty, and Getty Images, one of the world’s leading distributors of imagery, to create that change. The result is Project #ShowUs, the world’s largest stock photo collection created by women and non-binary individuals that aims to shatter beauty stereotypes and encourage the advertising and media industry to show us as we are, not as others believe us to be.
Learn more at Dove, Getty Images, and Girl Gaze, and explore the incredible gallery of 5,000+ stock images of beauty.