A boudoir photographer has inspired thousands thanks to a Facebook post that taps into the vulnerability associated with her line of work, and the unexpected effect it had on one couple.
On Monday, Victoria Caroline Haltom, the San Antonio-based photographer behind Victoria Caroline Photography, shared the story of a client in her mid-40s who commissioned a photo shoot early in Haltom's career. The photos were meant to be a Christmas present for the client's husband. According to Haltom, the woman had a few specific requests: That her stretch marks, wrinkles, fat and cellulite be edited out of her portraits.
Three days after Christmas, Haltom received an unexpected email from the client's husband that caught her off guard.
"When I opened the album that she gave to me, my heart sank," he wrote. "These pictures...while they are beautiful and you are clearly a very talented photographer....they are not my wife."
Though the husband did not fault Haltom for listening to his wife's requests, he explained that it was the flaws she'd edited from the photos that make up their life together.
"When you took away her stretch marks, you took away the documentation of my children. When you took away her wrinkles, you took away over two decades of our laughter, and our worries. When you took away her cellulite, you took away her love of baking and all the goodies we have eaten over the years.
The husband went on to thank Haltom for inadvertently providing him with a new perspective on his marriage.
"Seeing these images made me realize that I honestly do not tell my wife enough how much I LOVE her and adore her just as she is. She hears it so seldom, that she actually thought these photoshopped images are what I wanted and needed her to look like. I have to do better, and for the rest of my days I am going to celebrate her in all her imperfectness. Thanks for the reminder."
The letter also served as a teachable moment for Haltom herself:
Haltom's Facebook post has garnered more than 3,000 likes, 150 comments and 1,000 shares since Monday. She tells Mashable via email that though she'd expected the story to resonate with other women, she was surprised by the heartfelt response from hundreds of men.
"I have received hundreds of emails from men who all say the same thing: 'Thank you for reminding me that my wife is not someone who should be taken for granted. Because of your post, I went home and reminded her how beautiful she is just how she is,'" she said.
Haltom says she chose to share this story after many of her prospective clients called to cancel for fear of how they might appear in the images. In sharing the post, she hopes to have reassured them of their own beauty.
"As women, we are our worst critics," she said. "If I can silence that voice that tells them they are not good enough, I will consider my life and purpose a success."
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