Independent

An exhibition combating negative self-image in a square in Copenhagen has been closed down by police.

Photographer Mathilde Grafström snaps women who don’t have traditional model looks, for a photo series called Female Beauty.

“I take my photos to show young women that they are more beautiful than they think. I show the woman that she is beautiful, and that way I can help her to accept herself," she told Denmark's TV2.

Police have denied permission for her photos to be displayed in Copenhagen’s Nytorv square, with Grafström filing a complaint against them and condemning their view of the female body as “offensive”.

Mathilde Grafström - Female Beauty

“It's totally reprehensible. Total suppression of my art,” she said. “I don't understand that my pictures can be offensive. They show something you see when you change clothes at a swimming pool.”

Grafström drew attention to an advert featuring naked breasts for a plastic surgery clinic being run on the side of Copenhagen buses which has not been taken down.

"Nygart’s [the surgery’s] breasts are plastic. My photos are an aesthetic expression. It is shocking that my pictures are obscene, while advertising is not," she added.

Grafström’s work with nudes stems from her own insecurities about her body.

"I love to shoot my models naked. But sometimes it can be difficult because I also fight with my own problems; I think my hips and breasts are to small,” she writes on her website.

“Sometimes when my boyfriend are looking at my body, I think that I'm unattractive. But then I can see that it's all the negative thoughts about my body that makes me less beautiful and unfree.”

“When we don't make ourselves small, boring and ugly with our own thoughts, we shine naturally of beauty, life and joy."