“Brown skin girl
Ya skin just like pearls
Your back against the world
I never trade you for anybody else, say”
It’s one of those Wednesday mornings – and when I say morning, I mean morning like 1AM morning – when I say, “Oh crap! It’s Wednesday and my piece is due for the newspaper; Clau is going to kill me!”
I hope you enjoyed the opener, as it was my attempt to amuse you with filler words and I am hoping that you are still enjoying my filler words. #Kuuurrrr
Okay fine. As we are about to wrap up Black History Month, I just wanted to tell you guys a little bit about my project this year and how it has affected me and so many others.
My sister Zoya brought this idea to me a few years back to do a project based on insecurities, but being younger in my career, I guess it wasn’t something that I was interested in doing at the time. So fast forward a couple years and I was scrolling on Instagram and there was this picture of a plus size black woman with her back to the camera. You could see the rolls in her side. I believe that picture pulled on my sister’s idea in my subconscious and birthed this project.
The project is basically twofold. First, I had females volunteer to have their insecurities photographed and along with that, they would submit a short text explaining why that was their insecurity. Second, I had females volunteer to be photographed nude so that I could also portray images of the natural black female body (implied, artistic nude). Of course, some of the females who volunteered the insecurities also volunteered for the second part of the project.
Honestly, sometimes when I saw how many likes the pictures were getting, on the low-end, it did not encourage me to continue with the project. I mean we are in a social media driven age and as much as I am aware that impact matters most, I still sometimes get caught up in the “likes”.
Occasionally, I would have people messaging me to say how amazing the project is. I even had one person tell me that this project gave her the necessary courage to actually feel comfortable posting a picture with her insecurity. I mean in the humblest way possible, the project was changing lives. The vulnerability of the females who volunteered for the project gave other females a sense of comfort in the fact that they are not the only ones who deal with insecurities and it also gave them confidence to be able to put those insecurities out there.
You know, I never thought that the project would have this type of impact. I knew it was a pretty good idea and I always strive to allow my storytelling to reach people on a deeper level, but sometimes it’s really hard to estimate the impact something could have. However, I must say that I am extremely happy for the outcome.
At this point, I have a few more pieces to share. Some of the stories of these females taught me a lot, gave me insight into what women deal with daily and even almost brought me to tears. A couple of the female insecurities had to do with post-pregnancy bodily changes; and it’s crazy that one of the things that really make women the most amazing being on the planet is one of the things that drive or create their insecurities.
If you’d like to see the project, just check out my Facebook (Cameron Hyman) or my Instagram (itscameronhyman). It will also be up on my website (www.cameronhyman.com) at the end of the month.
*Yo Siri, Play Brown Skin Girl by Beyonce, SAINt JHN & Wizkid*
