This is artist Anastasia Kuba. A former topless dancer, Kuba had a revelation in her mid-twenties about how society ties the idea of worth to physical appearance, and began using photography to make a change.
This spawned Nothing but Light, a project in which Kuba photographs volunteers in the nude to help them reconcile their relationships with their bodies.
"I recognize how difficult and scary publicly stripping down is," Kuba told BuzzFeed. "So anyone can cancel their participation in the project at any moment for any reason."
"I don't tell people what they should write about," Kuba said. "Most people have told me writing is harder and more vulnerable than being photographed. It took me weeks to write my statement, so I get it."
"When many people publish their nude photos on internet, the first thing they worry about is how it's going to affect their career," Kuba said. "But some subjects have participated specifically to prove that they can be naked on internet and be professional at work, and one has nothing to do with the other."
"Most of my subjects are under 45, which I think has to do with using Facebook to find people," Kuba said. "There are a few people with visible disabilities in the project, but as an able-bodied 32-year-old, I have to work harder to connect with both of those communities."
"Each time I have been banned from Facebook for nudity, my subjects have stood up for me, posting the photos I took of them in protest. Everyone who's written about the project has gone out of their way to make sure they correctly represented our intentions. Every day, I get letters of support from people all over the world."
You can see all of Kuba's photos — and read each model's statement — at Nothing but Light.
