Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about empathy in the arts. I’ve always approached my work as human-first. As a photographer there is a big responsibility to recognize that your subject is a real person. Someone with their own entire world that they experience, friends and family that love them, thoughts and stories that they share or keep to themselves. But most important to me, is that they’ve also experienced a lifetime of societal influence that shapes the way they view themselves. It’s my goal to deconstruct that influence. To release the insecurities and trauma that shield and inhibit us from experiencing complete comfort with ourselves. And then we take a picture of exactly that. @dawson_gwin_modeling