Title; Fat Girl: April Flores
Author; Carlos Batts
Source; NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review
Format; eBook
Publisher; Rare Bird Books
Publication Date; July 16th 2013
Description; His most personal work to date, award-winning photographer Carlos Batts explores the stigmatized world of the "fat girl" in his fourth collection of photographs with wife, adult film actress, and plus-size model, April Flores. Featuring new and intimate photographs of their life and world together, Fat Girl captures an exquisite beauty too often misrepresented.
Goodreads Average Rating; 4.40*s
My Rating; 4*s
Would I recommend this book? Yes, I would recommend it to some.
Will I read anything else by this author? Hmm, it is possible.
Could I reread this book? Yes, I probably could.
My Review; I wanted to read Fat Girl because, well, because I have always been plus sized. Even as a small child. I am so glad I requested this title on NetGalley.
Plus sized people, both women and men, are not usually deemed as beautiful. Well, people are more used to seeing obese people, but it is still not something that a lot of people view as beautiful. But that is what this book represents; a beautiful plus sized woman. And April is beautiful, and at the beginning she mentions how she never felt very confident about her body before she started properly modelling. To me, that seems crazy, but that's the way it is.
People these days, no matter their gender, don't feel beautiful. Especially those of us that are beautiful in an unconventional way.
There was not much writing in this book. It is, after all, a book based on the photographs. However, the writing in this book, the little bits that April tells us about her life and about being plus sized, well, it...moved me. It spoke to me.
The way plus sized people are usually portrayed in the media...well, it is not usually in a great way. But, in this book, well, the muse, April, is presented to us as a woman who is confident, beautiful, and...provocative. She is a person. A beautiful model who just happens to be plus sized.
This is how plus sized people, heck, people in general should always be portrayed. THE WAY THEY ARE. Just because someone is slightly different doesn't give you the right to judge them or think of them as something other than normal. Or something other than a person.
To me, that is what this book represents.
April mentions in this book why it is called "Fat Girl." Usually being called fat it is...kind of insulting. But April tells us that she doesn't see it that way. It took her a while to see Fat as just another word, but she did it...and, to me, that's...kind of amazing.
April isn't just beautiful because she has a pretty face. No, she's beautiful because of her confidence, and the things she wrote, that just made her more beautiful.
In this book April is maybe made to look this way because that is what Carlos sees, and is so, then he is an amazing photographer. I see why she became his muse, and why he spoke that cheesy line 12 years ago. I'm glad that he and his wife created this book. It is a book that needed to be written. Or one that I needed to read anyway.
April Flores is not just "Fat Girl." She is so much more.
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