EMBRACE

Have you ever held someone, and it felt like home? A simple, delicate gesture—a guiding hand—when a warm, long embrace can feel like a thousand years. Loving with all your being, their hands are like electricity; bodies embraced in an oxytocin bliss. As trust, love, and tenderness overtake you, your atoms meld and collide in synchronicity—the safety, the surety, the unequivocal security.

I once asked a scientist for their definition of love; their answer came in one word: "closeness." To embrace love within ourselves is to allow ourselves to love another.

Created for an editorial series on body positivity, we explored the external expression of self-love—laid bare in the purest of fragile forms, standing tall, proud, and true. No matter the hardships and terrors of life, nor the perils faced, it is essential to remember we are loved, and the first love must always begin with you.

Photographer & Art Director:

Aaron McPolin

Model
florence Baitio

Makeup & Hair art
Nadia Duca