EMBODIED: Leigh Righton explores the human body and our relationship with it.

For Leigh Righton‘s latest body of work the Vancouver photographer focused her camera on the parts of people’s bodies that they are most uncomfortable with. The project is called EMBODIED and was conceptualized with the purpose of celebrating the human body and exploring our relationship with it.

Righton photographed more than thirty people who bravely exposed the parts of their bodies that they have struggled with at some point in their lives. The models were also asked to submit a hand written piece detailing their experience and relationship with the body parts photographed, and/or how it felt to have a camera turned on them for this purpose.

The result is a powerful combination of images and words that had a unexpected impact on the participants, as well as on Righton herself.

(Click the images to view a larger version)

She initially reached out to friends and family via Facebook, and they were the first to volunteer. However, Righton says the project took on a new life when people she had never met started coming forward and asking to take part. “The conversations I shared with the participants during our sessions made this experience much bigger to me then just the visual outcome alone,” says Righton.

While this installation was created to honor and showcase the infinite variety in the human form, for some there was also an unexpected therapeutic outcome as I watched self-criticism give way to acceptance and ultimately appreciation, highlighting the beauty of our differences.

You can also find the full project online. There are three galleries, and this is a link to the first: http://bit.ly/LVdyIn

EMBODIED is also on exhibit at Haiku Studios in Vancouver until the end of August.