Girl on a Wire

This week Blue Peter viewers will see presenter Helen Skelton become the first person to high-wire walk between the chimneys of Battersea Power Station, in aid of Red Nose Day 2011. About this time last year Helen completed a 2,000-mile solo kayak along the Amazon for Sport Relief, again the first person to do so.  As I watched the You Tube video of Helen completing her walk balanced on just a 18mm thick piece of wire and 66 metres up in the air, I not only marvelled at her sheer bravery but also at her perfectly applied make-up. When I photographed Helen for First Women, she wanted to look glamorous too and the photographs I took of her on the Embankment at Putney really capture that “gritty but girly” look. And why not?   It’s really important that women rejoice in their own sexuality. Helen is a beautiful woman with a fantastically fit body – in the twenty first century we shouldn’t be afraid to celebrate that aspect of women – we have worked hard to win the freedom to look the way we want, and in my First Women photographs I am striving to show that truth: we are who we are and we should be able to display ourselves in the way we choose.

To see Helen as The Girl on the Wire, check out: http://tinyurl.com/65yvt93