About VOLUP2

VOL•UP•2  was created with the idea that all bodies should be celebrated as beautiful. With a focus on genuine diversity, VOL•UP•2  embraces beauty of any kind, not just what society dictates it to be. What started as a quarterly magazine is now a consistent content producer with intriguing editorials and great blog content. We hope you like what you see!

About Velvet d’amour

I share a passion for both modeling and photography. I have had the great fortune to model for John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Nick Knight, Ellen Von Unwerth, appeared in French Vogue and more. My great success as a model has served me behind the camera as well.

I am much stronger in each of the two fields by working both in front of and behind the lens. Being behind the camera gives me control, versus offering myself up to whomever I model for. It allows me to speak and to share beauty which has a tendency to be overlooked. It gives me the power of making dreams reality. It affords me the potential of making someone see how very beautiful they are. I suppose some of my strength lies in taking what may be seen as average, if not 'unattractive', and bringing out the beauty that is there. Whether society sees that or not is up for debate, but my experience is that the people who model for me inevitably see it, and the extent to which this seemingly subtle dance of photographer and model impacts their personal vision of themselves is exceedingly moving to me. It is a way of making a positive impact on the individual, as well as combating how limited the current beauty dictate happens to be. I also shoot more mainstream models and I have a great love of fashion photography so it is liberating to partake in this world, which has tended to be more dominated by males.