By Jess McCabe | 5 October 2007, 11:47

The blog Elastic Waist is collecting photos which show the “history of our bodies” (via Back in Skinny Jeans).

You can see the photos on Flickr. This has the potential to be a really affirming project:

We are not interested in befores and afters, because no one is an after.

There may be a before the point at which you are now, a turning point where you decided to become more comfortable with your body, or changed the way you took care of it.

Readers are encouraged to provide some explanation for the photos, and many of these are hard reading. For example, Lindsay’s submission includes a “before” photo, which she candidly admits to taking “before” she realised that she was perfect the way she was. The she adds:

I thought I had it all figured out. I thought that I would be happier if I were skinnier. Why didn’t I know back then that my body was perfect that way it was? Instead, I continued saying mean and nasty things to my thighs, my chubby cheeks and continuously cursed my lack of willpower.

However, some of the submissions are a bit more conventional, and at times it veers dangerously close to just repeating all the same old, mindnumbing stuff. Partly, perhaps, because the collection was started by a weight-loss blog. Still, in principle this seems like it could be a really good idea.