I recently came across a quote from Sophia Loren:
‘Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical.’
I am often asked why I advertise that ‘everyone is beautiful, when it is not true’. For some it may not, but I think differently. I photographed so many people: young ones, old ones, sizes from 4 to 40, short and tall, with perfect teeth or no teeth, healthy and sick, with no income or with own yachts, with no clothes or two rooms of wardrobe; I even worked for a King for 1.5 year.
It all doesn’t matter. Everyone absolutely everyone is beautiful in their own unique way.
I ask my clients three questions, and the answers are so various and completely unpredictable. I also have a nice conversation and I build a relationship with them, it is something very personal – the act of being photographed. In the old days people believed that photographing is stealing the soul of a model. I don’t steal the soul, but I freeze it and create it as a memorable event to a ‘model’ and worthwhile for a whole family. Who wouldn’t like to have a beautiful portrait of themselves or their mum? Something like a royal ancestors paintings in the corridor, might be for a wall or as a keepsake box.
Anyways, the starting questions are:
– What do you like about yourself?
– What you don’t like about yourself?
– What is Beauty for you?
I like the first one and last one, first one – not many people will mention more than 6 things about them, character or image wise. The answer for the second question is endless. And the third one is the most touching. If I would be the one to answer what beauty is for me, I say:
‘Beauty is in everyone, in eyes, in smile, in dimples, in a way someone crosses their feet, or touches her ear, or corrects her hair, or how strongly someone sits or stands; or how a shy person devotes herself to a community, but forget about herself, or how someone loves her children or a husband.’
It is all amazingly beautiful, and to be chanced to observe all those little things about other human being – I feel blessed. I can see beauty in everyone, I bring it forward and I immortalize it on a paper – a photograph that others will cherish for years to come.
It is all amazingly beautiful, and to be chanced to observe all those little things about other human being – I feel blessed. I can see beauty in everyone, I bring it forward and I immortalize it on a paper – a photograph that others will cherish for years to come. It might be a young mum who just gave birth and doesn’t feel good about her own changed body yet – who will look at the image 20 years later and show it to her son ‘that’s when I just had you’. It might be a daughter who had her photo taken with her mum when she was 30, but mum is no longer with her. She can show the image of a great-grandmother to her great-granddaughter. Those are the moments to ‘meet’ your family members, or see how stunningly beautiful she was being 70 years old.
Instead inside of us, the little voice whispers:
‘You need to lose 20 st…’ or
‘You got wrinkles…’
‘You are too old…‘,
‘You don’t have anything to wear…’
…before you will have your photo taken. Just to tell yourself that you are not good enough for it.
‘Beauty has so many forms, and I think the most beautiful thing is confidence and loving yourself’ as Kiesza said, and it is never a wrong moment to do it. That’s why I love my job. I love showing others what I see in them. I love showing people how truly amazing they are. And I adore when they like their portraits and hang their large print on their wall.
Or ultimately they start pursuing their dreams because they believe they can do everything.