It is said that the camera adds ten pounds – but that wouldn’t make a difference to these morbidly obese glamour models.
While most photographers dream of getting stick-thin supermodels to pose in front of their lens, Italian photographer Yossi Loloi, 36, has gone in an opposite direction.
He has produced these shocking images of super-sized women – in all their naked glory – for the sake of art.
Each woman in the project weighs at least 30 stone – with the heaviest pushing 43 stone – and hides nothing from the intrusive glare of the lens.
His fascination with women of size led him to New York’s underground ‘fat acceptance’ scene in 2006 where he began taking these provocative images of women, known as SSBBW (Super-sized Big Beautiful Women).
Yossi went on to produce FullBeauty, a project of full nudes that turns the notion of beauty and form, fashion and attraction on its head.
“I wanted to show that beauty isn’t owned by skinny people alone,” said Yossi.
“To this end the project had to be provocative, but at the same time reassuring, so I focused on their fullness and femininity as a form of protest against discrimination.
“My intention was to show women of size in a way that would be hard for people to criticise. So I shot them in settings that weren’t instantly recognizable.
“This way, the subjects would be taken out of context and viewed in their own intimacy, creating a sense of liberation and serenity.
“I was more interested in shooting these women for what they represent and not necessarily who they are in real life – to me they are human sculptures.”
While the photographs in his project will be judged by most on their artistic merit, Yossi accepts that they will be taken the wrong way by some viewers.
“It saddens me sometimes when people stop ‘at the gates’ of the ‘health issue’ rather than stepping inside the image and trying to understand it.
“It shows how we are spoiled culturally and so it is my job as an artist to ‘awaken’ feelings in others, be it outrage or marvel.
“With FullBeauty I am trying to underline that we all have the right to be appreciated the way we are and that there should be no dictatorship on taste.”
