Natural Beauty

Within the chaos of our busy lives and uncertain world events, we crave calmness and grace. “Natural Beauty” celebrates the nude feminine form in Mother Nature. Find a comfy chair, a cup of tea, relax, and decompress as you page through the book’s imagery. One hundred courageous women modeled for the book, and many of them wrote essays sharing their stories. Let your mind wander among the artistic details and enjoy the journey.

Natural Beauty is the culmination of a multi-year collaboration between photographer Kyer Wiltshire and a diverse group of extraordinary women. This book is a visual exploration that also reveals intimate stories about the lives of the women featured. This project’s main intention was for these women to feel empowered and highlight the sublime beauty of the feminine form in nature. There are five chapters in the book. They are:

Strength

The women in this book represent this contemporary paradigm of feminine beauty because they embrace the qualities of the feminine and the masculine. They are strong, disciplined, and celebrate their physical prowess. They are dancers, contortionists, gymnasts, yoginis, rock climbers, bodybuilders, dancers, and aerialists.

Wonder

Nature can deliver us from our sense of self-importance, expanding our perspectives. Consumed by our thoughts, daily tasks, and grievances, we sometimes forget that we are part of an immense universe. Nature reminds us of our interconnection to the living world and our reliance on that connection for survival.

Nature is also the source of inspiration for Natural Beauty. Landscapes burst with color, textures, and scents. Nature brings out our child-like curiosity and helps us let go of our inhibitions. These models adventured to magnificent environments and created images that speak of our connection to an ancient home.

Connection

Meaningful connection is essential for our survival. We are hard-wired to love, be loved, and to belong. If we neglect our need to be close to others, many physical and psychological issues arise. We are social beings, and we seldom thrive when alone.

This book also reminds us of the beauty that we can create together.

These women find empowerment through the awareness of one another. In these images, we see the nurturing of a mother, a friend’s empathy, the collective feminine spirit, and the wisdom we receive from being in relationship with nature.

Grace

Grace permeates the images of this section. The feminine form has curves and radiant skin, along with confidence and poise. A deliberate and thoughtfully composed photograph captures a model’s essence and displays her fluidity and elegance as the natural setting and light all come together in a well-choreographed dance.

Insight

We obtain insight through practices that help us process our thoughts and emotions.  Without practices like these and allowing our curiosity to roam free, our insights could remain mere concepts. The act of living openly and experiencing life allows for personal transformation to occur.

As life is not a solo journey, we also gain insight by learning from others. By welcoming different perspectives, we expand our understanding of ourselves and the world. When we learn to appreciate our bodies and become comfortable in our skin, we expand beyond our form. When we move past cultural conditioning into a positive relationship with our bodies, we move beyond guilt or shame and find freedom and acceptance.