Flex

The New Zealand-born photographer Emma Anderson is perhaps best known for her work for Ralph Lauren and J.Crew, alongside fashion shoots in magazines including Vogue Italia, ELLE U.S., and i-D. Her commercial work is made up of vibrant, movement-filled snapshots; films depicting joyful, fresh-faced coeds; and portraiture that beautifully straddles the line between polish and raw interiority. In her editorials, she captures women in quiet moments, often in nature. In one image, two women lie on a rug, holding each other in an embrace, half-dressed and seemingly unaware of the camera’s lens. Another pair drift in a lake, their heads resting on each other’s shoulders in serenity. There’s a calmness and consistent intimacy to her lens. Whether shooting for a brand or developing something more personal, Anderson gives light to a full inner world.

Her latest project shows a new side of her practice, pushing it further than ever before. Over the coming months, Anderson, who is based in New York, will travel back to her homeland to document the islands’ thriving community of female bodybuilders, focusing on women who do not use chemical enhancements. The images in these pages are the first of what will grow into a book as Anderson returns to shoot the women, many of them middle-aged or older, and different elements of their culture throughout the next year.

The origins of the project can be traced back to when Anderson’s mother and sister became part of a female bodybuilding community in the North Island of New Zealand some fifteen years ago. “My sister got into bodybuilding when she was in her twenties,” relates the artist over Zoom. “Then my mum did it on and off for a few years. And mum went pretty hard. She ended up winning her age category in the world championships in Las Vegas in 2016, a few days after the 2016 U.S. elections. My sister and I went to watch her there, and it was the first competition I saw in person.”

Now, almost a decade later, Anderson is diving into this unique world firsthand, connecting with current and former bodybuilders in her mother’s network and shooting them in competition gear in their homes and on their land. These women include Jess, Anderson’s 39-year-old sister who is now a personal trainer and yoga teacher; Shannon, a fifty-something-year-old competitor who posed alongside her pet razorback pig Pepe; Naera, a 65-year-old Maori trainer and competition organizer; Pich, a trainer in her sixties well connected within the women’s bodybuilding community; Roanna, a Maori New Zealander in her thirties who took home the overall Sports Model win at World Fitness Federation Victory 2025; and many others. “All of the people I met via mum,” says Anderson. “Mum lives in a tiny little village with under a hundred permanent residents, no stores. They only got cell phone reception a few years ago.”

Anderson shot the first images of the women in and around their homes, encouraging them to wear their competition bikinis and incorporate elements of their daily life. “A lot of people will do photo shoots for comps, but they are used to a certain kind of photo shoot, a little more like a glam shoot,” she explains. “I wanted to push it in a slightly more documentary-ish way. I really wanted to shoot these women in their domestic environments and look at these bodies outside of the context of the gym.”

The women express diverse motivations for competing. Shannon began after seeing her mother-in-law lose function as her motor neuron disease progressed. “I always said I wanted to do it before I turned forty,” she says. “She was an incredibly strong woman and I thought, ‘Well, I have the body and the ability.’”

Naera trained for her first competition at forty-one. “I did that and I won, and I just wanted to carry on and compete,” she says. “Being on stage comes naturally to me.” Jess started after a personal trainer encouraged her to try competition. “It really just filled this void for me, but it also gave me something,” she reflects. “The gym was my safe space, and really I made a beautiful community around that.”

The images bring the viewer into this world, complete with traces of the everyday. Plastic stripper heels used for competition stand on a rugged floor, the kitchen table visible just behind; a sculpted back leans against a red muscle car. The women pose in custom-made bedazzled bikinis, running through their routines with their pets, their living rooms and backyards in the background. “There was a lot more joy to it than I anticipated,” says Anderson. “It was my first little exploration. Now I have a bigger community.”

She’ll return to New Zealand to document the women during the winter holidays. Then she’ll travel back this coming May to shoot her first competition. “It’s just so incredible to capture these incredibly strong, powerful women—especially older, strong, powerful women,” says Anderson. “It’s amazing to see women still pushing their bodies to the limit and showing such strength at an older age. Also, not wanting to just hero the norm when it comes to bodybuilding and strong bodies. It’s more interesting to go beyond that.”

Emma has selected The Sameer Project, which supplies aid to displaced families in Gaza, as the recipient of proceeds from direct sales of CERO 10.⁠ Preorder your copy to see this story and many more in print here.