In a world of beautiful Instagram fantasies, this photographer from Dubai has chosen to give a platform to Dubai’s brave residents to voice their insecurities. We all have them, then why it is so difficult to talk about them.
Dubai-based photographer Waleed Shah has created a new campaign “Rock Your Ugly” and it sees Dubai resident speaking of realities of life, and it gives everyone of us strength to speak out and not be ashamed of our insecurities because they mean nothing.
Shah was inspired to create the campaign, when he experienced some mental health struggles himself. He said: "I had wanted to explore other people’s body insecurities since then but never got around to it until a few weeks ago when I lost my best friend to cancer and wanted something, anything, to get my mental state back on track. I decided to pick up this project and see it through it. The process was like group therapy. I would listen to someone else’s pain and share mine."
The campaign has turned into a beautiful collection of unedited black and white images of Dubai residents that show how beautiful and brave it is to accept who you are.
Hamdan Al Abri: “I didn’t want to go out because people might think I have a disease“
Azza Al Mughairy: “After giving birth I was on water and juice only and lost 15kg”
Reham Khalifa: “Ever since I’ve had my first child I’ve switched to the “boyfriend pants” look to cover up my belly”
Dia Hassan: “When I left insurance I threw away every suit I owned”
Read about their entire stories in detail here. http://www.waleedshah.ae/rock-your-ugly/