Nadia Marion is not a model. She’s beautiful (duh) and this picture is stunning, but the Nadia I know is modest, awkward, and considers herself completely unphotogenic. Then one day Nadia messaged me, asking for a good photographer to take some “racy” photos of her. She wanted to document her body before she underwent some pretty serious surgery and lived the rest of her life with a scar from her belly button to her pubic bone.
It turns out Nadia had a gigantic tumor growing in her abdomen. Like, grapefruit sized. Within a matter of weeks, it went from nothing at all to poking out pretty noticeably. (Our friend Alan called it her “alien baby.”) Understandably, she was pretty freaked out.
“Everything in my life seemed like it was going from bad to worse. I got really bummed out,” she told me. “I knew my body was going through these awful changes because of the tumor and it and was only going to get worse with the surgery. I needed something to hold on to, something to show me that my body is stronger than everything that was happening and that I would survive this.”
Scared her body would end up looking bad, she wanted to capture a time when her body looked good. So who did I send her to? Izabela Rachwal, of course. The master of making women look their most beautiful. Needless to say, Nadia was more than satisfied with the results.
Whew. Was that as much fun for you as it was for me?
Anyway, I was blown away by the photos. They’re undeniably sexy, totally erotic, yet classy and pretty – not exactly what comes to mind when you think “boudoir.”
“I love capturing this true beauty, sensuality, and sex appeal,” says Izabela. This is her jam. “I believe that every woman can look beautiful.”
With this in mind, she started Dolce Intima, a photography studio specializing in her personal brand of boudoir photos and contemporary portraits (basically, the opposite of cheesy or embarrassing). Her partner in crime is my personal fav Haley Golin, who takes care of the hair. (Nadia’s hair usually looks very fine and straight. Haley completely transformed it.)
“I love helping people maximize their true beauty and giving them the opportunity to feel glamorous. Many women don’t give themselves the time to get dolled up from head to toe and notice how beautiful they really are,” she says.
Nadia, apparently, would recommend it to anyone.
“I honestly have a new appreciation of my body. I think a lot of women tend to focus on our perceived flaws,” she says. ”These pictures show me in a light I don’t normally see myself in. They make me look and think about myself in a different way, and that change in perception is a good reminder that women are beautiful, and that our ‘flaws’ aren’t really there to begin with.
I’ve seen Nadia post surgery. The tumor was benign and she’s healing nicely. Yes, she has a scar, but you know what? She’s still incredibly beautiful. And now she has the photos to prove it.
- Braden
Check out Dolce Intima online for details and pricing. (Totally worth it.)