Empowered Women Empower Women

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Joanne Csakany is a photographer of 15 years. She’s always been an emotive soul, an artist, a mother, a wife. She’s been through losses that transformed her and grew her into a free spirit that follows her dreams, that loves to travel and she’s made it her goal this year to see the world. Iceland, Egypt, Croatia, Alaska… She has a heart and passion for seeing women see their true worth – that it doesn’t lie in their exterior, but what is within and the love they carry for themselves. Joanne has been on a journey of self-love and self-care for the last 6 years and she is so grateful for it. She loves helping women see their fullest potentials and that they can come out of hardships transformed. We all have beautiful wings, we just can’t see them sometimes until someone shows us them in a photograph.

Joanne Csakany empowerment photographerEmpowered Women Empower Women

Unedited. 🦋 I am a boudoir photographer. Yet I feel like there is so much more that cannot be encapsulated into that title. I document seasons. Women transformed. Women in metamorphosis. This is why I named my collection for women Mariposa, which is Spanish for butterfly… it is effeminate to sit or perch, to pause. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
In this busy world… to pause. To ruminate on the journey.
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To be honest.. some days it feels like hypocrisy to try to encourage women to find this love when I am struggling to find it too. Just because I empower a woman and push them towards self-love, doesn’t mean it comes easily to me. My chrysalis is just as dark as hers. Even so, I remember that all women are in different stages of change, trying not to compare where we were yesterday, last year or next year. Just trying to exist in the now, trying to learn to love ourselves as we are… today. Pausing… to find loving arms for ourselves.
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A photographer took photos for me in my studio so I could show edited vs. unedited. That Photoshop is like makeup – when used properly it accentuates the canvas that is already there… but when overdone, can falsify the beauty underneath. What we do as artists matters. It matters in how women perceive themselves. It matters in how we are activists for women with real bodies, real scars, real lines, real cellulite … authenticity. It doesn’t mean I ban Photoshop. Doesn’t mean I throw out my make-up. Just means I am learning to say ‘I love you’ to an unedited version of myself. The veins, lines and scars… they are all the waters and lands I’ve crossed on the wings of my journey. This body of 42 years grew two babies, sustained arms that held them, shed many skins. Bodies are incredible, and beautifully imperfect.
empowered women empower women
I’m not competing with any woman or any version of the woman I was before, I accept myself here and now. I celebrate all women because we all face the same demons of doubt, fear & judgment. The shift starts with those who refuse to fit into a societal box that tells us a copy is better than the unedited original. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
SOOC: Anderson Photography

I shared this post on my personal, business and boudoir IG accounts. I felt ashamed at first, embarrassed and pre-judged. I’m scared to share it here even. Lol. But I remembered a conversation I had with someone very important to me about how the most vulnerable posts speak the loudest. This year I want to not only empower women in my boudoir, but to embrace their authenticity too. I feel like photographers who shoot boudoir sometimes fight an inner turmoil of wanting to use an appropriate amount of PS to make the client happy and yet embrace the beauty of imperfection. I refuse to make anyone someone they are not. But I also understand when people want to cover a scar, bruise, etc. I used to cover a scar on my forehead till my husband told me it made me a badass. From that day on, I left it in, every time. Because true beauty is in our imperfections! I respect that not everyone wants to be as vulnerable and transparent, so it is imperative that we talk to our clients about their expectations. One day at a time things are changing. I really feel so much happiness inside my heart though when I see major companies and brands photographing women without a ton of Photoshop. I feel like society is shifting and it is honestly long overdue. <3

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