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What Lies Beneath: A Journey to Self-Love Through Nude Photography

Shelbee On The Edge
5 min readOct 28, 2019

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by Michelle Montoro

Photo Credit: JMH

It has been a super long journey to get here. One that has consisted of decades of self-hatred, body shame, and all sorts of changes in weight and shifts in the shape of my body.

Finally, in midlife, I have discovered a true and genuine self love and appreciation for my body in its current shape…with all of its curves and jiggles, scars and blemishes, bumps and bruises, imperfections and oddities.

Through the years, I have learned to highlight and accentuate the parts I love. But that is the easy piece of this whole journey to self love and body positivity.

Learning to love and celebrate the parts that I am not so fond of…that is where the challenge lies.

So I decided to embrace all of it. Raw, real, blemished, and scarred. In an attempt to view my body from a different perspective…through a camera lens…I ventured into the art of nude photography.

Photo Credit: JMH

To be clear, I do love clothing and find a wonderful outlet for my creativity in expressing myself through what I wear, so I have no intention of becoming a nudist. Plus the…

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Shelbee On The Edge
Shelbee On The Edge

Written by Shelbee On The Edge

Michelle is a passionate scholar and a lover of words with a driving desire to help others in the pursuit of becoming the best possible versions of themselves.

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