Sophie Mayanne has had a whirlwind couple of months, as the photographer behind a major body positivity ad campaign.

The ‘Mothercare Body Proud Mums’ campaign features unaltered pictures of mothers and their new-borns, aiming to normalise what a postpartum body looks like.

For Cirencester-based Sophie, the campaign is the biggest she has worked on yet.

“I photographed 10 mums at different stages with their babies, to show the reality that once you have a baby everything changes and that’s normal,” she explained.

“You see celebrities on social media after having a child will post airbrushed and photoshopped photos as if they’re back to normal straight away, it’s completely unrealistic.”

Originally from Wales, Sophie moved to Cirencester when she was five years old, and currently lives in Siddington.

Her interests have always been artistic and creative she says, but only after studying Art and Design at Cirencester College did she begin to focus on taking pictures.

She continued: “I really got into photography between the end of college and the beginning of uni.

“For one of my final projects in college I photographed a number of women including my mum, and then I continued into the summer and ended up making most of my university assignments about photography.”

Sophie graduated from Middlesex University with a degree in Fashion, Communication and Styling with first class honours in 2015, and has since been working as a freelance photographer.

She was approached by Mothercare following her work on a personal project called ‘Behind The Scars’, which photographs and celebrates everyday people with scars resulting from accidents, surgery and other life-changing events.

“Two years ago I did an editorial for a magazine where I photographed 10 people with scars,” continued Sophie.

“I felt that I’d only just brushed the surface so I continued the project and have now photographed around 450 people.

“We’re about halfway to our target of 1,000, I’ve had a little break to do other projects but now we’re casting again. I’m hoping to turn it into a book when it’s finished.”

It was also two years ago when Sophie made a pledge to never airbrush or retouch any of her photographs, a brave move in an industry that often aims to hide imperfections.

“On Behind The Scars I never retouched anything anyway,” she explained. “Then a model who I photographed four years ago was telling me about her struggles with anorexia.

“The client I was working for had asked me to retouch her photos, enhance her jawline things like that. It made me feel as though I had contributed to her problems.”

Sophie’s pledge came at a time when more and more people in the fashion industry were beginning to take a stand against unrealistic portrayals of women in media.

The Body Proud Mums campaign went viral almost instantly, receiving attention from major news outlets across the world, and gaining praise from major body positivity advocates in Jameela Jamil and Thandie Newton.

The campaign has also featured on TV, in newspapers and magazines, and also in tube stations across London.

Sophie added: “It’s been really good, since the release its spread across the internet, I’ve had messages on social media from people who said they loved it.

“I had a message from a lady who said, ‘I saw the photos on the escalator in the tube and they made me cry’.

“It’s a bit surreal, especially with the posters on the tube that are taller than you! It’s interesting to see how people react to them, they don’t know that it’s you who took the photos. It doesn’t feel real at first.”