About Bloodroot

Several years ago, in an Oregon Oak grove, I invited two of my dearest friends to witness and photograph me as I shed clothing, old stories and a lifetime of struggle with my body. That day they held space for me in such a profound way that something shifted deeply inside of me. After my session in Oregon I wrote in my journal, “My heart has been broken open underneath a canopy of oak leaves and the seeds of possibility for healing, renewal and even self love have been scattered deeply into that openness.” This session was the beginning of an awakening to the power, divinity, and profound truth that lives within my body and was the seed that would become Bloodroot Sessions. 

Bloodroot Sessions came out of a desire to dismantle the harmful hierarchies we place on bodies. I longed for a space where humans can be seen in the power of who they are, to embody a precious wildness that is their birthright, and to love on their bodies with permission and kindness. I believe that when we tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth with our hearts and bodies that we can move mountains and shift entire paradigms.

The sessions were birthed from a personal experience of the life changing power of deep witnessing and in many ways the process of being photographed and seen is just as important as the outcome of the images. The portraits themselves are a declaration of our capacity for liberation and healing and speak to our ability to take up generous space and reclaim our bodies as our own. Radical renewal for the collective begins in the process of returning to our bodies as our true home.

-Rachel Liu, Creator of Bloodroot Sessions