“Bare Reality has completely transformed me,” Laura went on. What do women think about growing up? What do women think about sex? How do women feel about motherhood? Breastfeeding? What is our experience of health, body image, ageing? It is clear to me that Bare Reality was a search to find out what it means to be a woman. “I felt compelled to look past the cultural mirror which had so long encircled me.

“I became fascinated with the dichotomy between how breasts are presented for public consumption versus how we feel about them privately,” Laura told me.

More: 12 Things all women with small boobs understand No better, no worse than any of the others. I can imagine my own breasts slotted into the grid. But it’s very rare to be faced with 100 topless women and given the opportunity to see exactly how different breasts can be. Of course I know - we all do - that all breasts are different. While I loved the act of breastfeeding - the empowerment, the bonding, the ritual - I didn’t like its effect on my breasts.

After breastfeeding two babies (one for 13 months), it’s fair to say all the life has been sucked out of them. They were perky enough, suited my frame and didn’t get in the way when I was working out. Before I had kids I didn’t really give them much thought. Looking at some of the images on Laura’s website, it struck me how harsh I am on my own breasts. Today the project culminates in the release of a book and the launch of an exhibition - ‘ Bare Reality: 100 women, their breasts, their stories.’ The breasts of 100 women, all shapes and sizes, all with their own stories. So for two years she photographed breasts.

Laura Dodsworth wanted to show what breasts really look like and tell their stories.

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