You are invited! This Thursday!!

We at MORE THAN THE IMAGE wanted to invite you to join us in a celebration of our “experiment.”

But first, we want to thank you for your bravery.   You showed up for us and trusted us to use your image.  We are all so grateful to you for being there with us in the very beginning.  We are amazed by the beauty in your gestures of love, openness and friendship.  

MORE THAN . . . has struck a chord with so many people.   We are excited and amazed by it all.

We have been invited to share this project at a showing of women artists on May 2, 2019 at the Ilana Greenberg Gallery. Please join us for live music and drinks too!  Julie will be on hand to shoot portraits as well. Please come see what you helped make and bring friends.

WELCOME

More Than the Image

Welcome to MORE THAN THE IMAGE - We couldn’t think of a better time to launch More Than the Image than on International Women’s Day.
Our mission is dedicated to portraying women in real and non-stereotyped ways.

Please share a photo of yourself here on our FB or write something about yourself so we can have a balanced look at who and what women really are. 
and check out our site - LAUNCHING TODAY

#morethantheimage ##IWD2019 #balanceforbetter

March 8th 2019

Women all have that one thing they hide. Women spend a lot of time hiding parts of themselves that they, for whatever reason, feel ashamed of. Some of us hide our face behind makeup, some hide scars, some hide grey hair, some hide emotions, some hide fat, some hide intelligence, some hide cellulite, some hide struggles, we all have something we want to hide. When we expose that part of us, whatever the degree, it is terrifying.

At More Than the Image we want to expose the things we hide and accept that within ourselves. We want to show the whole woman in the media. We want to show more than a strong woman. We want to show more than the beautiful woman. We want to show the exposed woman and the part of women that struggles. Our purpose at More Than the Image is to show the complete and whole picture of women.

We invite you to show your naked face, your undone hair, your weakness, your wrinkles, your rolls, your scars and your worry. We want to show that part of women and we want to LOVE that part of ourselves so we can put out in the media a complete picture of who we are.

Think of women who work with babies on their backs and women who in the past would have to walk around with high heels just to have a job that a man would have. Women that couldn’t complain, but had to produce. We are done with that as women. We are done trying to fit into a man’s ideal and a man’s working schedule.

We are ready to be honest with ourselves and society.

We couldn’t think of a better time to launch More Than the Image than on International Women’s Day. Our mission has always been dedicated to portraying women in real and non-stereotyped ways.

Please share a photo of yourself or write something about yourself so we can have a balanced look at who and what women really are. #morethantheimage ##IWD2019 #balanceforbetter

Reaction

I’ve been thinking about my picture reaction. A few things came to me. One, automatically I started thinking about whether or not I looked “good” or “bad” in the picture. Then I considered that maybe that is part of the conversation. I want people to really see me. I’m more than that image.

I thought about when I was cute and young; when men wanted me and would try to be charming. It was exciting and fun, but also scary. You never know. I was thinking how now that I’m older, sometimes men seem angry at me for being in their vision. In a city that is primarily geared at younger people who are actors and models trying to look perfect, I am an affront to the eyes.

Then my thoughts meandered to the value our society puts on older people. It’s not much. As a culture, we only seem to be interested in beautiful women at the prime of their sexuality. Like women have nothing else to offer.

Suddenly, I kept thinking about Jamie Lee Curtis. I couldn’t figure out why I had Jamie Lee Curtis on the brain. When I was walking today it occurred to me. I remember when Ms. Curtis posed un-retouched in 2002 and how powerful that was for me. I thought that was amazing. I realized that this conversation has been going on a long time. We are just joining a little later.

I did a research on exactly when that picture was taken of Jamie Lee Curtis and I read something even more powerful to me than that gesture was. To paraphrase, she said her husband, Christopher Guest, pointed out that gray-haired Jessica Tandy in a simple dress was the most beautiful woman in a roomful of glamorous celebrities. That’s it in a nutshell.

Our Mission

"When I looked at my picture I automatically started thinking about whether or not I looked “good” or “bad” in the picture. Then I considered that maybe that is part of the conversation. I want people to really see me. I’m more than that image"

Welcome to MORE THAN...

"More Than the Image" is a photo journalism project with the aim of capturing and sharing images of women as we see ourselves to counter balance the pervasive stream of unrealistic (and often unsustainable) images of female bodies ever present in advertising and popular media. We want to build this body of work and share it as a way to be a part of the conversation about women’s bodies, agency and self perception.

During the photo session the participant is asked to list five words to describe themselves or the experience. We also welcome further thoughts about the project, process, topic, etc. through written submissions. Let’s all be a part of this conversation!

The photos will be published via our website, Facebook and Instagram (also Twitter and Medium perhaps? -we are open to ideas!) in the hopes of inviting women to participate through their own photo with us, their thoughts or their own photo

Hashtags may seem pervasive and perhaps too on trend but they serve a vital purpose as a way to index and search topics relevant to the conversation.

We think these may be useful:

#morethan...

#morethantheimage

#realwomen

#beintheconversation

#reallife

#MYme

#seeme

#dumpobjectstatus

#womenacceptingourselves

#acceptance

and also the fabulous word bank being filled in by participants own self descriptors. #Resilient comes up a lot! Maybe that reflects this moment we are in?

WELCOME in any case. Please join us in this exploration!

Lisa, Julie and Maryanne

(link to bios)