Beauty Standards
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
I photo a lot of beautiful people. But of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Here are my definitions of beauty.
Natural is beautiful. Authenticity is beautiful. Emotions are beautiful. Vulnerability is beautiful. Confidence is beautiful. Overcoming pain and hardship is so immensely beautiful.
In the age of digital media, facades are all we see about people. Rarely do we see the deeper beauty beneath the surface. So naturally it's hard for a photograph to show people in their true beauty.
The fashion and beauty photography industry is built upon superficial ideals of perfection. Easy beauty, where we can spend money to suddenly become "beautiful." Fluttery eyelashes, hairography, fake smiles, shiny lip gloss, name brand clothes, retouched skin. We convince the world these cheap tactics are all you need to become beautiful.
It's always a struggle for me to do my art and capture beauty, when others believe beauty standards involve just makeup and pretty clothes. Because true beauty is so much more meaningful than that, and we should all try our hardest to discover what it can be.
Exhaustion and joy somehow live side by side. I love this newfound strength I’ve discovered within myself.
I think if we get anything out of this year. It’s that we can live our lives a little more calmly, a little more authentically.
In times of distress, we can complain about the unjust nature of the world, or we can see the situation from a place of positivity and gratitude.
I love being a woman. I love digging deep into my insecurities and sharing my vulnerability with other women who feel the same internal struggles and anxieties. But it hasn’t always been easy.
[Art] can reawaken us to the genuine merit of life as we're forced to lead it. It's advertising for the things we really need.
These past two years or so I've never lived in a place for longer than five months. I've learned to be okay living a modern nomadic lifestyle.
It's not about what you want and your tastes. It's about what others need and how you fill in that void by being professional and extraordinary in your services.
I choose to believe life is a journey. Its thrill is in the adventure, the climb, not the destination. And here I am just starting mine. I have no idea what's next, but I'm willing to take on the adventure.
22 is such an uncertain time. Without school, there's no longer a path for me to follow. With my formal and informal education, what do I have to offer the world? Is being self-taught enough to allow for success? How do I go about starting my dream?
Natural is beautiful. Authenticity is beautiful. Emotions are beautiful. Vulnerability is beautiful. Confidence is beautiful. Overcoming pain and hardship is so immensely beautiful.
This election definitely isn't the worst thing that's ever happened to you, and you can't let it destroy you, but rather motivate you to work harder for what you believe in. But more importantly, educate yourself. There's always more than you know.
Natural (adj): Being accordance with or determined by nature. Not containing extra substances or anything artificial.
What does it mean to be a professional? Can I turn my passions into a career? Will that career satisfy me and fulfill my soul? There's so much pressure, so much discomfort, so much fear.
Not everything can be documented in photos. The taste of gelato on a hot summer day, the crazy bicycling incident, the feel of the Mediterranean Sea, the butterflies in your stomach, the brief but interesting exchanges with locals, and the messy parts in life...occurrences like these can only be felt in the moment and logged into your memory bank to become stories to tell. And surprisingly, the things that go unphotographed are the things I remember best.
It's up to us to figure out how to live in harmony with one another, learn to accept and understand each other, open our minds, and stop using things like religion as excuses to fight our own kind. Look at the big picture. We're all human. We're one.
Being away from a home and in so many foreign places everyday was both physically and mentally draining, and I wanted to clear out some cluttered thoughts consuming my mind these past few days.
In the digital age, everything is so easy that nothing feels meaningful anymore.