What are the most common words I hear when clients cross the door of my Portrait Studio?
I am unphotogenic, I don’t like myself in photos, I hate photos.
I meet on my way very interesting people, original, unique, extremely attractive, ambitious and doing great things in their professionals, but unfortunately often perceiving themselves very critically.
There are no unphotogenic people in my opinion! The perception of self, is always done through a set of filters: cultural, imposed by religion, related to upbringing or even mood. We rarely have the opportunity to see ourselves as others see us, our perception is distorted.
What if we considered that what makes us stand out is precisely what constitutes our originality and is not a flaw? This is how I look at the people I photograph. I see facial asymmetry, unusual proportions, strong accents as an interesting feature.
Let’s look at facial asymmetry. One eyebrow rises higher, the ears are at different heights and one stands out a little more, the corner of the mouth drops slightly, the nose hole is more drawn than the other. Who have I described? Myself. But just as well you. Or you.
Asymmetry is natural and normal! It is where emotions, experiences, experiences are located, where our lives are recorded. It makes the face real and – paradoxically – harmonious.
In the programme of my author’s workshops entitled. “How to look good in photos and professionally build your personal brand with an image” (you can find the description HERE), there is a section where, using my own example, I show what would happen if my face was symmetrical, made up of two left or two right halves.
These pictures are always accompanied by loud laughter, mine and the participants. The unnaturalness and artificiality in this release is surprising. This is not me… Can you see it? Clearly something is wrong.
Standing out is neither good nor bad. It is just normal. We are different from each other and I think that’s great! I love this difference and I draw a lot of inspiration from it.
My individual qualities make up my uniqueness and originality. And it’s exactly the same with you!
And that’s why I create portraits, both commercially and as part of my personal series. In Beautiful People, the minimalism of the form allows me to focus on the personality (you can find the series HERE). In One People Story I add the context of situation, place and time to the personality (you will see HERE).
Regardless of the cycle within which I create, the human being and his or her variety, is an inexhaustible source of my inspiration for action.
