What is beauty?
I was out for a drive and listening to the actual radio today, when the song “She Ain’t Pretty” by the Northern Pikes came on the radio.
It’s the Pike’s best known song, and it’s a fun, barroom rocker that is near impossible not to sing along with.
If you don’t know the song, or just want to hear it again, here’s the video:
The song is the story of a down-on-his-luck wannabe musician who meets a girl who is gorgeous, but turns out to be … well, not the nicest person in the world.
I’ve always loved the song. And, as a photographer whose goal it is to capture personality, character, emotion, it underscores a key thing that I try and convey in my images: that beauty is as much an internal process as it is external appearance.
The trouble is, that is hard to convey in photos. How do you show kindness in a boudoir image? How do you capture optimism in two dimensions? Or a person’s intelligence or energy, or enthusiasm or passion or honesty or humility? These are just as beautiful—and are a truer indicator of a person’s beauty—than their bust size.
It can be hard, but a lot of the power for conveying this is in the face. Is in the eyes. It is in the way you laugh, or the way your eyes light up when you hear something that delights you. It’s the way you carry yourself.
We live in a culture that idealizes youth. We think that in order to be beautiful, we must be 18 and blonde and perfect. But perfect can be boring. And 40 (or 50, or 60) and dripping with energy and character to burn? Is equally interesting. Differently beautiful.
What I don’t want to do here is say one is “better” or somehow make it out that one is more deserving of having great photos taken of them. Far from it. I love shooting all manner of people, from people in the prime of their youth to people who have aged into beauty and grace like a fine wine. People whose faces have wrinkles because when they smile, the corners of their eyes crinkle. Who carry the marks of having kids with pride.
Beauty is not found in the colour of your skin, or your hair. It’s not a product of age or sexual orientation or bra size or weight any of a dozen other metrics. Yes, some people have a physical beauty, and yes, it’s okay to celebrate that type of beauty. But there is a deeper, more lasting beauty that comes from within and it’s okay to celebrate that type of beauty, too.