You don’t have to be ready to be seen.

You don’t have to be ready to be seen.

I hear it all the time.

“I just want to wait until I feel better in my body.”
“Maybe after I lose a little weight.”
“Once things settle down.”
“When I feel more like myself again.”

And I understand that instinct. Of course I do.

Being seen can feel like exposure. Like standing in a kind of light you don’t fully trust yet. It asks something of you… to be present, to be honest, to let go of control in ways that can feel unfamiliar or even unsafe.

So you wait.

You wait to feel ready.
You wait to feel confident.
You wait to feel like the version of you that deserves to be documented.

But readiness is a moving target.

The body you have right now will not exist in the same way six months from now. Or a year from now. Or after the next shift, or change, or becoming.

And I don’t say that as a warning.

I say it as an invitation.

Because the version of you that exists right now… the one in transition, in healing, in softness, in uncertainty… that version is not unfinished.

It’s not a “before.”

It’s a life that is actively happening.

When I photograph someone, I’m not waiting for them to feel ready. I’m meeting them exactly where they are. In the awkwardness, the hesitation, the moments where they don’t quite know what to do with their hands or their body or their breath.

Those moments are not something to push past.

They are part of the story.

The truth is, most people don’t walk into a session feeling fully confident or at ease. That’s not the prerequisite.

The only thing you actually need is a willingness to show up.

To be there.
To stay a little longer than is comfortable.
To let yourself be witnessed, even if part of you wants to hide.

And what I see, over and over again, is that something shifts.

Not because someone finally became “ready,”
but because they let themselves be seen anyway.

So if you’re waiting… if you’re telling yourself “not yet,” “not like this,” “not in this body”… I want you to know:

You don’t have to be ready.

You just have to show up.