“my photographs don’t go below the surface. they don’t go below anything. they’re readings of the surface. i have great faith in surfaces. a good one is full of clues. but whenever i become absorbed in the beauty of a face, in the excellence of a single feature, i feel i’ve lost what’s really there…been seduced by someone else’s standard of beauty or by the sitter’s own idea of the best in him. that’s not usually the best. so each sitting becomes a contest.” ~ richard avedon
I read this and I froze.
“whenever i become absorbed in the beauty of a face, in the excellence of a single feature, i feel i’ve lost what’s really there…”
We all see, perceive, feel things differently. The beauty in this concept overwhelms me.
We can look at the same face, the same eyes, the same skin…and yet feel completely different.What they give us, it’s different. Isn’t this what happens in love?
It isn’t something you can explain, or reason over. It just is. So you embrace it. You live it. You allow it to take over. You enjoy it. You fall for it.
Beyond the “beauty of a face”, the beauty of a soul. The beauty of a mind, not just the body. The beauty of discovering someone new, or someone familiar in new ways. So beautiful.
No preconceptions on who they are.
So many times we listen to people from a place of “already knowing”. We “already know” how someone is or how we are. But, do we?
The same happens when we create. We “already know” how we will be shooting, what we will be looking for in our subject.
But…what if we didn’t?
What if we didn’t already know what our partner, loved one, sister, friend, parent is capable of doing, saying or achieving. What if we listened from a place of just listening without past preconceptions to get in the way. Imagine the possibilities we can create in that space. Not just for ourselves, but for others.
What if we didn’t already know what we are capable of. How we will be shooting. What we will see. What will be there to be captured. What would we do? How would we be instead?
The beauty of creating is that everything we do comes from nothing. From nothing, we create. Feelings, shapes, movements, emotions. And what we create is infinite in that it will give something different to each of us.
Now. How incredibly beautiful is that?
“been seduced by someone else’s standard of beauty…”
She seduced me with her beauty. The light in her heart. Her elegance. Her sensitive edges and her incredible strength.
My beautiful Bea.
