I love nothing more than to photograph mothers with their daughters. The love and bond between mums and their girls and between sisters is always something to celebrate! K I had a wonderful afternoon with you and your girls and it was so beautiful to see that you are all friends as well as family.
Your daughters are stunning, just like their mum!
It’s often said to me “All the women you photograph are like models to begin with, not your average ‘every day’ woman.”
Look again.
They are you, they are me, they are your sister, your mother, your daughter and your best friend. They are normal every day women.
The most rewarding part of photographing women for me is seeing the difference it makes to their self esteem. Us women are so hard on ourselves, we put ourselves down, we don’t allow ourselves to nod in approval in the mirror, we scoff at compliments “Who me? You’ve got to be kidding me!” I don’t know why it is….but it’s just not the thing in women’s circles to like yourself and be proud of yourself…if you do, you are conceited and need to be cut down, and quickly! When our girls are young, as mothers we do our best to instill a sense of self worth in our daughters. And yet if that worth shows itself, it’s squashed almost immediately and labelled as tall poppy syndrome. It’s really such a shame. Imagine a world where women built each other up and where confidence was encouraged and self worth was admired. How much happier would women be!
I also believe the media has so much to answer for. We are constantly fed advertising and magazine articles on how we should look and feel, what we should buy, what weight we should strive to be, how to remove our wrinkles and what we should wear. Is it any wonder we are left feeling lacking!
I am not a political ‘women’s lib burn your bra’ type person, but I so wish that the media would just lay off a tad and show us more ‘normal’ women in fashion ads and beauty articles. Instead, the women we see all have the same ‘perfect’ plastic skin with not a blemish to be seen, thick computer generated eyelashes and bodies airbrushed and liquified to within an inch of their lives. And we are to strive for that…it’s not even real folks….it’s all fake. I have even seen before and after shots from a magazine shoot of a famous actress without an inch of fat on her body…yet they STILL liquified her to make her more ‘Jessica Rabbit’ in body shape. I was quite mortified as she is so naturally beautiful. What message is she getting from the media? ‘Sorry, still not perfect enough”. Sad.
I read somewhere about 12 months ago, that the ‘powers that be’ were going to place a ban on severe skin airbrushing for magazine ads.
I was thrilled to hear it….it’s yet to happen.
I know I feel quite liberated when I see an untouched image of an actress without immaculate hair and make-up….to see that she looks normal makes me feel so good! This is something that I point out to my clients, that actresses and models have a ‘makeover’ every day…..they are primped and prodded to perfection before facing the day in case a camera ends up pointed their way. If they dared venture out without either….without a doubt some would not be recognised …they would look just like you and me. For the rest of us…if we manage to find the time to swipe on a quick flick of lippy and mascara (and remove yesterdays!) before venturing to the supermarket or to drop the kids at school, our day has been successful! That’s reality! Who has an hour a day to look immaculate? Would we love to, yes….do we have the time…mostly no. We have other more important priorities.
The magic of an Elegant Portrait shoot, is you get to be the actress for the day…you get to be the ‘alternate universe you’, the hidden diva, and for some of us…merely the ‘you’ that was before kids!
I haven’t had a single client yet who couldn’t pass for an actress or model after an hour with the girls at the beauty salon. And the funny thing about us women, is that when we are all done up, we FEEL LIKE WE LOOK! It’s amazing how just that extra bit of time and grooming raises our self esteem. We walk with a spring in our step,our posture is positive,we SMILE more and we just ooze good vibes!
I want to capture those feelings and emotions and vibes in images you can keep and treasure and look at and REMIND yourself, that make-up or no make-up….that gorgeous woman is you! That beautiful person radiating confidence and self worth is YOU!
Sometime in the last 12 months, I blinked and my pretty teen daughter turned into a stunning young woman. There are times when I truly wish I could stop the clock and just appreciate the moment…but the old adage that ‘time waits for no man (or woman for that matter) has never felt more real to me than in the last two years when I have had to face the fact that my children are growing up. With one already at Uni and another getting ready to spread her wings and fly from the nest, it’s just all happening too fast! So when Ms.A prepared to go to an 18th last night, I seized the opportunity to pull her aside for some quick portraits. I love every single one of them.
