A Fashion Photographer's Unretouched Photos of Maja Malou Lyse

This story appeared in the 2016 photo issue of VICE magazine.

Normally, she'd be photographing lanky, twig-like models. And retouching. But not this time. For this project, Petra Kleis has just tweaked the contrast a bit. And this time, the twiggy models have been replaced by Maja Malou Lyse, a feminist and artist, curvy and hairy – and now, a model. Other than that, the set-up is the same. A location has been found, there's a fashion photographer, a stylist, a make-up artist and an assistant. There are expensive designer clothes and jewelry. The difference is that Maja is Maja, she is – in Kleis's words – "natural, she has hair where she has hair, she is the original design," and she's completely comfortable with it. And that's refreshing in a time where we're expected to feel ashamed of our bodies, or at least strive towards a better, slimmer version of ourselves. In a time where hair is removed – and the lack of hair removal is perceived as a statement.

"It's really weird that armpit hair can make us go: Wow! We've become so alienated from our own, natural bodies, and it's really nice to meet someone who is comfortable in the body she's ended up in," says Kleis. "We'd like to portray the hair under the arms as something beautiful. It's a close-up in red light where she's got beautiful, dark red lips and an armpit right next to her face. And the armpit is as just as much a part of the portrait as her eyes and lips."

The photo series was conceived in collaboration between Kleis and the stylist Mia Holdgaard, who spotted Maja Malou Lyse and got her involved in the project. Both stylist and photographer loved the 23-year-old feminist artist's style. And she is indisputably a feminist. A young, well-adorned one, someone they can relate to, someone they think is cool. "That's what's cool about Maja, who is part of a new generation of feminists that are allowed to be well-dressed, think it's awesome to have new, cool shoes, and don't have to walk around in some hideous purple top without a bra," Kleis says.

Seeing as both her and Holdgaard work in the fashion industry, there was little debate that a photo series with Maja would be shot as a fashion shoot. A provocative, cheeky, and in-your-face fashion shoot with a curvy, opinionated woman that stands by both her curves and her opinions – but still with everything else a fashion shoot entails. A fashion shoot in the sense that it should be able to be showcased in the kinds of magazines that they normally create galleries for. "We have plucked out the ordinary, thin model and replaced her with another model, who in my opinion is far more interesting. The series could easily be showcased in a fashion mag, just not with Maja as the model – unless there was a magazine that had the balls to run it," says Kleis, who – even though she felt a bit uneasy about abstaining from it at first – in no way felt the urge to retouch, "because Maja looks exactly how she should look," she says. "Maja is more brave as a 23-year-old than I'll ever be. It's naked and very honest."

Naked honesty is also a style that she sees herself and other fashion photographers in general taking more and more to heart. "Ten years ago, the raw file was something completely different from what ended up in the magazine – Photoshop was the name of the game," Kleis says. She has since seen the lack of retouching work afterwards become more and more of a criteria for success in photography. "But it is a bit scary when you're used to fiddling with people's skin, eyes, teeth, everything – no one actually looks like they do in the magazines."

Model/artist/feminist: Maja Malou Lyse
Photography/art direction: Petra Kleis
Styling/art direction: Mia Holdgaard
Make-up: Mevlút Yilmaz
Styling assistant: Maria Bluhme
Location: The Handvärk Apartment