Guest Blogger: AliMarie Photography

I am so excited to introduce you to the woman who captured my bald head so beautifully a few months back: Alissa Miller. I asked her to share her thoughts on beauty and how she sees her role as a photographer of beauty that is uncommon. Here's what she has to say:

"A warm hello! What a treat to share my thoughts in such a transformational slice of cyber space. Photographing Wendy was a joy and inspiration that continues to change me. As an artist and divinity student, I strive to combine my love of photography and passion for seeing healing in the world. Wendy's shoot allowed me just such a privilege.
So, what is it about photography that cultivates healing? Certainly, photography has the power to cultivate pain in our world. We are bombarded with images that few of us measure up to, which often nurtures a gut-wrenching dissatisfaction with our internalized hopeless inadequacy. This quietly instills a tragic self-hatred within many of God's beloved.
And, more, we're given a monolythic portrait of humanity. This simplistic perspective of our actual complexity, creates a divide between what is normal and what is not, what is acceptable and what is not, what is beautiful and what is not. We find our eyes squinting into critical glares that blind us to God's true and messy beauty.
The fracturing of the human spirit in the wake of unattainable perfection suffocates the life abundant that Jesus came to give. A life of abundant embrace of all that doesn't fit the norm. A life of abundant love for all... including ourselves.
I am drawn to a ministry of challenging these monolythic norms of perfection, a ministry of redefining beauty. My goal, as I pear through my camera lens is to capture the profound, divine beauty that radiates from each of us.
I find myself called to be a minister outside the church: loving people where they are, giving them the space to share their stories and capturing their unique beauty as a reminder of their unquestionable worthiness. It is through this ministry that I hope to bring about God's healing, love and courage to those who find themselves on a beauty margin.
Lofty, dreamy hopes, yes? I know. And I'm a lofty dreamer. But, I have seen the way that being given the space to unabashedly embody all that you are in front of a camera changes lives.
As each of us strive to unabashedly embody all that WE are, let's search in the mirror today not for our supposed short-comings, but for our deep, irrevocable beauty, a beauty that each of us bears differently and hearkens us back to the beauty of our Source.
Thanks for letting me steal your ear... or eyes... for a moment with my chatter. I'd love to continue the conversation with you on Facebook at facebook.com/alimariephoto.biz. Or wander my website at www.alimariephotography.biz. "