Lia: A Bodybuilding Story is the story of a female body builder, a woman with focus, determination, and the goal to participate in a pro tournament. My process is to embed myself with the subject in order to develop a trusted relationship and create a safe space where they are comfortable with me in their environment. For this project I began to photograph at the start of her training in June, 2022, spending many hours with her both in the gym and at other locations. Ultimately, I traveled with Lia and her husband to San Antonio for the competition, documenting her the entire time.

Her career path is not something I was familiar with at the start, and in fact, I did not understand it. However, over time I began to respect her work ethic and develop a great admiration for her. I had to reconsider my cultural assumptions and stereotypes of the world in which she operated. It is the process of learning about other people’s lives and experiences that attracts me. It is also my story of the personal challenge to meet and work with strangers and find commonalities and friendship. I discovered parallels with Lia in her focus on training and my newly found knowledge of what her sport entailed, compared to my focus on the documentary work, challenges we both shared.

This project has several themes. It is about the act of looking, not the male sexual gaze, but everyone looking and watching, with the mirror, the camera, and the computed being the other major characteristics. Our culture today demands that we observe and communicate via the internet and cellphone and Lia uses these to her advantage to tell her version of beauty and accomplishment. The story also asks the viewer to assess what they consider to be beauty feminine, and if is the same for everyone.