Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, but you wouldn't know it by the way that the media portrays it.


Beauty looks like a Victoria's Secret model, or Kate Moss. But photographer Yossi Loloi is out to change that. He created the Full Beauty photo project, which aims to document the nude bodies, and beauty of women who might otherwise never be seen, their Rubenesque frames typically cloaked in clothing.

The Full Beauty project took shape over several years as Loloi met women in the fat acceptance scene. "The women depicted are targets of societal backlash, but they are strong," Loloi said. "They fight for acceptance in a world that doesn't approve of the slightest bulging of a love handle, let alone 'morbid obesity' or the possibility that some people find beauty in ... all those things women spend thousands of dollars on every year trying to erase."

His models range in size and age from 350 to 600 pounds and 23 to 50. Loloi says his aim is to challenge the idea that thin is the only way to be beautiful, though he has his detractors. "The more people accuse me of promoting fat, the more I understand that there is more work to be done to remind people that we are beautiful because we are different," he said. "Why is showing a nude fat women labeled a 'provocation,' but seeing a 'fit' model nude on a magazine is not?"

And that's an interesting point: Are these bodies healthy? That's debatable. Though we'd argue there's nothing particularly healthy about an emaciated, underfed body, either. We may find the thin body more aesthetically pleasing because that's the physical ideal right now, but that hasn't always been the case (see Peter Paul Rubens' 17th century works for proof).

In the meantime, we'll support Loloi's assertion that thin isn't the only way to be beautiful.

"It's not only the acknowledgement of 'fat' as subversive beauty," Loloi said. "It's the realization that simply anyone can be beautiful."

What do you think about the Full Beauty project? Share your thoughts in the comments! [Newsweek]