Is Sensual the same as Sexy?

Short answer - no.

Long answer - here we go…

Sensual is about engaging the senses - touch, sight, smell, taste, and sound. As engaged they evoke pleasure, intimacy, or deep emotional connection. It’s more about feeling and atmosphere, often subtle, soft, and intimate. Sensuality doesn’t have to be explicitly sexual; it can be present in the way someone moves, the textures of fabrics, or the lighting in a photograph.

Sexy is more direct and overtly appealing to desire and attraction. It’s about being physically alluring and evoking a reaction based on attraction or seduction. Something sexy often has a more explicit intent to arouse or entice.

In photography, a sensual image might focus on soft lighting, gentle curves, and an intimate mood, while a sexy image might include bolder expressions, provocative poses, or revealing clothing. Sensuality can be more about suggestion and feeling, whereas sexiness tends to be more about direct attraction.

More clear now?

This is what I stand for and this is what I offer to my clients - a visual experience where they feel seen, acknowledged and heard, not just photographed with or without they intimate clothing.

Photography is 2 demential form to visualise reality, moments, people. It has power hold by the photographer and inevitably being their responsibility to what and how is captured and shown.

Sex sells, yes, for a lot. But how much would you pay to be fully seen and valued?

The most important Love?

Does February remind you of an obligation to show your love through physical gifts and heart shaped items, or rather makes you roll your eyes up in the air - “love is to be celebrated every day!”.

I agree - Love is to be celebrated and shown every day. Love, the feeling that has many shapes, goes to different faces, but at the core is always the same - incredibly liberating feeling we live for, the one through which we exist.

What is the most important love of all? Love towards your parents or your children? Love towards your partner or friends? Love towards your mission in life or the mindful activities you lean on to keep yourself sane? What is the Love that truly matters no matter what? Where do you find it and how’s it look?

The answer is simple - it’s You. The love you most need is the love you have to give yourself. The same enormous feeling of liberation and fulfilment that vibrates in your chest, expands outwards and sweeps everything on its way. The love you long for to feel complete, to feel happy, to feel content is the pure love that you need to give yourself.

But… How come? Isn’t this selfish?

No.

It’s not selfish, it’s self care. Your capacity to love unconditionally must start from within and expand outwards. The relationship you most need is the one you need to build with yourself in order to share a loving partnership with someone else. Because you can only give what you already have and not the other way around. The more compassionate and loving you are to the person you are most critical towards (yourself) is the key to building a deep, meaningful relationship with anyone else.

During celebrations like Valentine’s day we often put ourselves in a certain group of people, depending on our marital status. If we’re single - we root for self-love. If we’re in a relationship - towards romantic love. I’ve seen people change and take sides depending on the year. I’ve been one of them too - choosing a certain side depending on the moment. But what we all really must understand and accept is ourselves and the love we must give ourselves first.

Nobody else is you, nobody knows what’s inside of you. Nobody will ever be as close as your own Self, nobody can feel your emotions like you do. So let’s start there first. Not just once a year pumped up by the bombarding marketing from all directions, but every day in privacy. For you from you. Because you deserve Love and Love is all you need to allow yourself to give yourself in order to receive. Rest will follow.

With Love and Gratitude,
Mariya

Would you still be you if you could choose?

In an ideal world, where you ca be anyone you wish, where money weren’t a factor and you would do anything you want, would you still do what you’re doing now? If you could choose, would you still be the person you are today?

Pain is inevitable, however it offers us a queue jump ticket to the growth we actually need. Happiness is great, yet for every achievement a certain discomfort is required. If things were all well all the time nobody would’ve move, make a difference or accomplish anything else. It is not necessary to wait for the extreme pain to force you to take a different road ahead, but it is necessary to decide to make the change.

And so, if you’re truly being honest with yourself, could you say you are being the most authentic representation of yourself right now? Do you spent your time working just to pay the bills or dedicating your time on something you care deeply about that you would do even if you weren’t paid for it?

It’s uncomfortable to go against the commodity, yet more painful on the long run if you haven’t. Life goes by and what we do affects us. Big shifts are easy to see but all of them are result of a small steps. Drop after drop. Step after step. Only at the end we can connect the dots and see the whole picture.

Are you doing something today that will help you get where you want to to keep you staying in the familiar reality?

I will allow photos of myself when I loose the weight

But what are we really missing? We’re missing the true meaning in the record of our life, ourselves and our work. Record that helps us see our progress as well as adds to the history for future generations.

Waiting to be ready, get ready, feel ready, look ready is a futuristic moment in time that might never comes around. Our lizard brain is trying to protect us and puts us in procrastination mode to wait for a time in this imaginary time where everting is perfect and we don’t feel any resistance. Both you and me know this moment in time is a pure illusion. It was never there, it will never be. So then, aren’t we simply wasting precios time instead?

Yesterday I heard it again - “I want to come for a photoshoot, but first I have to loose the weight”…
Do you really?

I’ve spent years of my life hiding, not allowing myself to appear on photographs with friends and family, not attending events because I didn’t feel good in my body. Years passed to realize I’ve lost recording special times in my life what will never come back again. Looking with a wiser eye now, I see the weight wasn’t really that bad and even if it was, life is a constant change, things transform, body size too. What never returns are the experiences that shapes us, that nurture us, that help us become the people we’re meant to. And this is exactly what we have to celebrate.

It is one thing if you want to put an effort and look the best while having your photoshoot and another if you’re actually hiding. Are you not allowing yourself to see yourself in your glory?

How you feel is important, but we wait to find the moment where we feel perfectly ready inside and out to do something for ourselves. There is no such moment. We can always find an excuse, something to insult ourselves for, something to compare with others, but that only stops us of feeling the love and joy of being alive, being here, experiencing life as we do.

Furthermore, artistic photography is not about purposefully pointing your flaws. It’s about celebrating them instead. It’s about capturing your energy, your essence, the soul that lives in this body that you constantly insult and harm. It’s your vehicle, your house, and has nothing to do with your sense of worth or beauty. Yes, it can help if you feel good in your skin, but you might be surprised that after a sensual photo session you will feel more connected and inline with the body you so wanted to change beforehand.

You don’t need to change to feel worth it, to feel beautiful or special. You don’t need to loose the weight, buy the clothes, find the partner. You need to change the way you look at yourself - to learn to accept this magnificent being you are with flaws and all. We’re not here to be perfect but uniquely ourselves.

Talking Body Image and Nude Art Photography with Dr. Rali Georg

I’m so honoured to be invited to the podcast The Soul Filler by Dr. Rali Gerog where we talk about self-love, body image and art photography.

It was a lovely summer day and I welcomed her in my studio in Poblenou. Here is the full interview - it’s packed with truth, art and real life examples.

Let me know if anything has resonated with you.

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