This past fortnight I have had the privilege of shooting two women aged in their fifties. I've been wanting to do this for some time now, because as you know I am all about shooting ALL women. I don't believe beauty is defined by an age or a shape or a size. But I began to notice that my portfolio was starting to fill with young, pretty, slim women - all beautiful in their own right, don't get me wrong - but I was worried that if, say, an older or fuller-figured woman visited my page and saw that and only that, she would be put off and brush me aside as a photographer who only photographs pretty girls. Or she would feel that looking beautiful in photographs is only possible for a certain type of girl and not for her - and that couldn't be further from the truth.
Sure we all have our imperfections. Winter has been unkind to me. Clothes are a bit tighter and I'm noticing a few more fine lines on my face which weren't there last year! But I wouldn't let that stop me from being photographed (especially with hair and makeup done!). I want to exist in beautiful photographs for my children and their children. When they look at photos of me, do you think they'll say, "Gee granny, you sure were a porker back in the day! And look at all those wrinkles!!" Of course not!
My fiance lost his mother when he was 18 (she was 54). All he has left is a few photographs. He doesn't look at her weight or grey hairs or wrinkles or anything else that might otherwise stop us from being photographed. He looks at her and remembers the beautiful woman who raised him to be the man he is today. The woman who clothed and fed him, who taught him how to say please and thank you, who celebrated birthdays and Christmases with him, who wiped his tears and listened to his stories. That is who she really was. That is the woman he sees in those photographs. The woman he misses everyday.
I have no doubt that when the children and grand children of these women see these photographs they will see the same things and cherish them always.
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| Girls just wanna have fun! |
