Career & Entrepreneurship
21 Days of Real Women – The People – Cecilia Betancourt
Last Saturday the 21 women of photographer Zornitsa Ivanova met in Lausanne for the vernissage of her campaign “21 Days of Real Women.”
Cecilia Betancourt – copyright Zoriart Photography
The campaign of Zornitsa:
This project was designed to showcase and celebrate everyday women with their flaws and imperfections. Women who have trouble accepting reflection in the mirror, because modern society is constantly telling them that they are not beautiful enough. Through a series of 21 portraits, this campaign aims to help women to love themselves as they are and find beauty in their curves. The campaign also aims to break the stereotypes of beauty that only young, skinny women are worth seeing.
One of the women, who took part of the project, is Cecilia Betancourt. Cecilia is an artist in Zurich, where she works at Betancourt-Art. She wrote the following text to summarize her unforgettable experience.
Cecilia Betancourt – credits Zornitsa Ivanova
“21 DAYS OF REAL WOMEN”
The People
Most of us didn’t know each other before the project started and throughout the shootings which were all done individually. But we all felt identified, maybe not always by the specific stories, but by the feelings behind each of them.
We felt heartbroken by some of the stories but we also smiled by the brave results and attitudes on each and every one of them.
We were moved to tears, we grew in each other’s hearts and we felt inspired by each and every story that make a treasure out of this campaign and project by 📸 Zornitsa Ivanova.
I have to say that every time a new story came out and was published, I felt very moved and inspired, but also felt humble because the hardships and pain that some of them have experienced, together with their strength and brave attitude towards it, was nothing close to anything I have experienced. I felt a deep respect for them and for their stories and became proud of being embraced in such a project for who and what I am.
Zori, photographer and creator of the campaign, made us (I think I can say that from each and all of us), end the year with an incredibly beautiful and powerful gift, to end it with beauty, pride and admiration for ourselves, for our life, with all its difficulties and hardships, for our unique journey, for how far we have come in our lives.
She put a new kind of mirror in front of us, showing us ourselves from deep inside, passing by the physical and our own hard judgements we constantly do in front of a mirror, she showed us our real deep beauty, and that is priceless!
Zornitsa Ivanova with Cecilia Betancourt at the vernissage
“21 Days of Real Women”, a photography exhibit by Zornitsa Ivanova
