elena siddal

New Age

elenasiddal:

“She seems so cool, so focused, so quiet, yet her eyes remain fixed upon the horizon.

You think you know all there is to know about her immediately upon meeting her, but everything you think you know is wrong. Passion flows through her like a river of blood.

She only looked away for a moment, and the mask slipped, and you fell. All your tomorrows start here.”

Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things

Anonymous asked: You have many many amazing photos, but the ones that grab my attention are the ones where the photographer captures your beautiful expressive eyes when you look into the camera and out at us.

Aw! Thanks, anon.

Anonymous asked: i love that you're so body-positive, it's very encouraging to me. do you still have moments where you doubt your appearance or hesitate to shoot with someone? i've been modeling for a couple of years and still feel awkward sometimes.

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: I definitely have days where I feel less than awesome about myself, but that’s more human-me than model-me, I think. I have days where I don’t understand what the fuck my hair is doing, etc, and there are certainly things that I wish I could change about myself in my darker moments.

I try really hard not to let those moments last, though. 

The thing is, all that trite shit that people tell you about loving yourself really is true. You’ve got to be your own number one advocate, because there are always people in the world no matter WHAT you do who will be all too happy to try to tear you down.

We all have our opinions and moments when we criticize others, but at the end of the day, our opinions speak much more loudly about ourselves than they do about the people we’re talking about.

And yeah, I’ll avoid shooting with people (even if it’s a potentially lucrative job) if the way they talk about me or other models makes me uncomfortable. (That includes negative comments and overly sexualizing comments. Photographers, take note: If you talk about me in remotely sexual terms, I am not interested in working with you. The people I fuck can sing the praises of my glorious tits all day and night, but if we are working together, I do not want to hear it. It’s enough to know that you like my look and want to shoot. Do not talk to me about my tits, my ass, my pubic hair, my skin - just don’t do it. ) I just don’t want to be around that kind of negativity. I catch wind of people saying nasty things about me, and I choose not to engage. It’s not worth my time. There’s work I’ve got to be doing, and a life I’ve got to live in this body. I’d rather worry about making myself happy than a.) pleasing others or b.) being upset over other people’s insecurities.

I think a lot of that negative talk is bullshit, I think it prevents people from growing as artists, and I think it distracts from the process. It’s not helpful to anyone. At all.

General policy: if it’s not your body, it’s not your business. Shut the fuck up.

The beautiful thing I’ve discovered is that the more I’ve actively avoided that kind of negativity in friends and collaborators in every area of my life, the more beautiful people and opportunities have come out of the woodwork. I’m working on narrowing my bubble to include only thoughtful, body-positive, sex-positive, queerfriendlyintersectionalfeminist awesome people with good intentions. That way, I don’t have to worry about explaining how to be a decent human being to people and can instead just get down to business. I can also trust that the people around me are smart and will tell me when I (inevitably) fuck up and say busted shit by accident.

This got away from me a little bit.

Try not to let the doubt get to you. You have more important things to do, like be fabulous. And on the days where it inevitably does, do your best to be nice to yourself and do the things for yourself that you know will make you feel better - good friends, tea, netflix, bed, bubble bath, whatever. I think that’s the best any of us can do.

blueriverdream asked: I visited the NGA's Pre-Raphaelites exibit today. Thought of you o'course :)

<3 <3 !!! I would so love to see that.

Anonymous asked: What are your favorite photos of yourself? (Feel free to say overall, or give multiples, separated by some sort of categories.)

Impossible to answer definitively! There are some I love because they have personal meaning, some I just think are pretty, some that are special because I loved the experience of the shoot..

This one by Rebecca Lawrence comes to mind. I love her, and I love the emotion in this photo.

This one by Adrian Buckmaster is an all time favorite, too.

This is a photo that my friend Tristram Savage shot of me. It’s a favorite because of the memory, the friend, and because it’s me - not model me.

There are countless others!

discourse asked: hey - great reply to the nipple question - thoughtful, considerate, wonderfully affirming - love it. well done. thanks.

I’m glad you think so! Yay body positivity.

Anonymous asked: Do people make comments/are they rude about your nipples. This is a really shallow question and I apologize. I have the same nipples as you and I can't find anyone else who does and I've wanted to get surgery for really long time because I just hate it and people make me feel really ugly all the time. I dont know whats normal. People have such a preference and its everywhere in the media. I'm really glad I found your tumblr, you're beautiful. I'm sorry if all of this is rude.

Hi there- this isn’t a rude question at all! Personally, I’ve never had anyone be less than complimentary about that particular part of my anatomy. I feel pretty positively about my breasts, partly -because- I don’t see a lot of people who are similar to me! I think difference is beautiful. Also, if you haven’t before, I very much encourage you to spend some concentrated time with lots of naked people. Go to a nude beach, or a spa with nude baths, and look around you at how different everyone is. The media captures only a fraction of the beauty of humanity. There is such exciting variety in size, colour, texture, shape of every part of people- it’s really gorgeous. I know how hard it is to fight media messages, believe me, but please try to remember that they mostly come from disordered and oppressive thinking that has little to do with anything that really matters. No one gets to decide what is beautiful about you but you. For every person who doesn’t find a particular part of you charming, there will be someone else who does. Stay around those people, and fuck the rest of ‘em. Their judgement says more about them than it does about you. Not their body, not their business!