In November 2011, a woman in my community, Lucia Maya, called me a few weeks before I was due to give birth to see if I would photograph her young daughter who was undergoing chemotherapy. I was so honored to shoot Elizabeth Blue yet struggled to summon my tired and heavy pregnant body to get to the studio to document such a vulnerable, exquisitely beautiful and painful moment in one family’s lives...

“Mom, you aren’t a size two, you aren’t light-skinned, and you’re beautiful. I won’t tell you that you have to do this (A Beautiful Body Project) if you feel you can’t, but I would love it if you did. Just promise me they’ll include your psoriasis. It’s a big part of you.” -Lupita’s Daughter