I'm Luana Martignon, an empowerment and editorial photographer based in Cambridge and London.
This is the story of how & why I got here.
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I am an intersectional feminist photographer.
I believe that representation matters, that all bodies are worthy, and that a photograph can be one of the most rebellious acts of self-acceptance there is.
I work with individuals, business owners, charities & organisations. Activism and making a difference are at the core of my work.
I have been there, I got to the other side, and I help people do the same.
Photography saved my relationship with my body.
Throughout high school and university, I made myself small by wearing ill-fitting clothes, conforming, and people pleasing.
I went to university in Venice, graduated in Visual and Performing Arts, and moved to England a week after.
I was 24 and had £500 on me.
Why that matters to You.
With over 20 years of experience as a photographer, I already had the skills, I just had to give it a go...
You might have guessed it: a few years ago, I finally turned the intimate lens on someone else.
Seeing that shift happening for them, too, made me realise this is what l am meant to do.
You weren't born
hating your body.
Society teaches us to conform, to shrink, to make ourselves small, because it makes us weak and malleable: no, thanks.
I'm a body positive photographer and a body confidence photographer, working across Cambridge, London and the UK. I don't photoshop, I don't force angles, I don't pose people for the male gaze.
The Italian 90s were my "body image" school,
so I get it.
Growing up, I never felt like I looked "the way I was supposed to": I felt "too much this" or "too little that", never just enough.
I watched too much MTV, I saw my peers forcing themselves to be small, and diet culture ran deep within my family (and my culture).
I had been taking
self-portraits for years.
But after a very bad breakup, something shifted:
after a self-portraiture session, I found myself able to see myself with more compassion when looking at those photos.
This became a regular practice, and it changed everything for me.
People tell me I have a superpower: making them feel comfortable and seen.
I think it's because I know what it costs to hide, and I know what it feels like to stop.
Everyone deserves a place in the sunshine, and it starts with making the world more inclusive, one image at a time.