Calgary photographer empowers women and non-binary people through boudoir portraits and body image coaching practices

Female empowerment does not come lightly to artist Shannon Smith.

With photography and body image coaching practices, Smith works with women and non-binary people to rediscover their inner and outer beauty.

Smith has enjoyed and admired photography since she was young, and constantly had a camera in her hand creating her first photos at 14 years old.

Despite that love, she didn’t pursue photography until later in life due to letting the fear of becoming a starving artist hold her back.

Since then, photography became a bigger part of Smith’s life when she needed it most.

“The camera became my instrument to see through my postpartum depression (PPD) after I delivered my son seven years ago,” Smith explains.

“It was the tool in which I began healing and reconnecting the different parts of who I am.”

Rediscovering inner beauty

Through photography, Smith was able to gain a new perspective on life. She decided to quit her corporate career and pursue photography full-time to help others the way it helped her.

As a new mother, Smith started her business taking family portraits. However, she noticed that many of the women she worked with were self-conscious and had negative feelings about their bodies and looks.

“I was aware that I needed to have a bigger influence,” Smith says.

This prompted her to specialize in boudoir photography, where she could help women embrace their sensuality and femininity.

“I started learning everything I could about boudoir before reaching out to work with a few models to see if it was something that made me happy,” she says.

“It happened, and there was an instantaneous passion with the loudest fireworks display I had ever experienced in my heart.”

All shapes and sizes

Smith has worked with women of diverse backgrounds, shapes, and sizes, helping them transform not just their outer appearance, but their inner selves as well.

Smith recalled her mom having similar feelings when she was growing up.

“When I had my son, as a new mom I felt myself going down this tunnel myself; I pulled myself back and said there has to be a better way,” says Smith.

Smith knew that photography was not the only tool she needed to make an impact in the lives of women and non-binary people.

“I began investing in my education as a coach in terms of body image and self foundations, to help women and non-binary folks understand the trauma and biases that led them to think the way they do about themselves,” says Smith.

Smith works to help people “so that they can thrive and be the person they were always meant to be before the world made them feel they weren't good enough.”

Working one on one with clients or in workshops, Smith helps people find the person they were before the world made them feel otherwise.

“To see the spark behind a woman’s eyes come back to life, to watch her laugh and embrace who she is, I will cherish this with every single client,” she adds.

Confidence from within

For Smith, boudoir photography is not about the masculine gaze. Instead, it’s about helping her clients rediscover who they are and embrace their true selves.

Smith’s style is unique and reflects the multifaceted nature of herself and her clients.

“I don’t know if I would even use the word ‘boudoir’ anymore to describe my style; instead, I would just call it empowering portraiture,” she says.

“I want a person to feel confident and at ease, whether they’re dressed up or not, donning lingerie, a dress, or a suit. I want them to reflect how they desire or do feel on the inside and for that to appear on the other side of the photograph.”

Through her photography, Smith pursues a renaissance feel to her art that will allow viewers to experience the photographs, not just look at them.

She wants to give viewers the “capacity to savour the beauty of a woman or non-binary person and to view the world in a provocative manner that enables them to broaden their perceptions of others.”

Changing the narrative

Empowering women and non-binary people is important to Smith because she believes they are a disadvantaged group in society.

"If each woman did not doubt herself and showed up taking up space confidently and without apology, we would be able to share our different perspectives and gifts, we would show up as our authentic selves much more, and we would have a lot more acceptance for one another,” Smith says.

That’s why the photographer aspires to use her work to change the narrative that women don’t put their needs first.

“We have the power to change that, and one woman at a time, I want to contribute to that, I want to create that ripple effect of change and to see it grow further and further beyond my reach or imagination.”