Boudoir in Bath.

Ash Canavan has built something quiet special for women at Bath Boutique Studio.

From the outside it is a cute little shop nestled in Broad Street, Bath.

When you get inside it's something altogether different, a space where women come to reclaim something. Themselves, mostly.

A boudoir shoot, I discovered, is not really about the images. The images are just the result, the beautiful, tangible proof of something that happened in that studio.

It's a woman deciding, sometimes for the first time in a very long time, that she is worth looking at. Worth celebrating by putting aside an entire day dedicated entirely to herself.

Most women who book a boudoir shoot with Ash are generally over 40. Not the young, already-confident women I might have imagined. Women who have raised families, built careers and lives, spent decades looking after everyone else and have arrived, sometimes gently, sometimes urgently, at the realisation that it might be time to look after themselves.

Some wish to mark a milestone. A birthday, a divorce finalised, a chapter closed or a new one beginning that deserves nothing less than them putting themselves in the spotlight and celebrating who they are.

The images that came out of that process hinted at confidence, vulnerability, strength and softness, acting as evidence, on paper, that they are extraordinary just as they are.

And if you happen to be a man wondering whether any of this applies to you, why not try a Dudeoir shoot (yup). They are very much a thing. Different energy. Same philosophy. You are not excluded. 😄

*Owner and photographer - Ash Canavan · Bath. www.bathboutiquestudio.com