>One of Alexandra Cameron’s photographs of plus-size model Nyome Nicholas-Williams, which was removed by Instagram. Photograph: Alexandra Cameron (Photo-Credit)
Fifteen minutes into her shoot with model Nyome Nicholas-Williams, photographer Alexandra Cameron knew she had captured the perfect image: a dreamy split second with Nicholas-Williams bathed under natural light, her eyes closed and arms wrapped around her breasts.
The response on Instagram was ecstatic: “stunning … beautiful … this should be in a gallery!”. But within hours, Instagram had deleted the photo and Nicholas-Williams had been warned her account could be shut down.
“Millions of pictures of very naked, skinny white women can be found on Instagram every day,” said Nicholas-Williams. “But a fat black woman celebrating her body is banned? It was shocking to me. I feel like I’m being silenced.”
Her followers rallied. Hundreds of users fought the platform last week to share the censored photos of Nicholas-Williams under the hashtag [#IwanttoseeNyome](/culture/new/IwanttoseeNyome) , while Cameron accused Instagram of a disconnect between its positive statements over Black Lives Matter and the apparent unfair targeting of its black content creators.