GENUINE BEAUTY
Since the beginning of time, the female form has been considered an object of beauty to be used as inspiration for literature, poetry, and works of art. My series, Genuine Beauty, continues this tradition with a new perspective, which includes the female gaze, where my consideration of beauty includes not only the physical but also the internal self. Photographing a woman in her most vulnerable state is not an act that includes notions of power; instead, I seek to reveal my subject’s interior experience of womanhood, as well as my own.
Inspired by works of Ruth Bernard, Edward Weston and others, I photograph as a way to look for hidden secrets, strengths, and insecurities. Every woman embodies genuine beauty if she is willing to reveal her true self and enigmas. During our time together, my model and I discuss our shared experiences as females and what we want to achieve visually; a kind of femme poetry. This introspection allows us to work more closely together with integrity. The result is a photograph that is at first, a reflection of my own beautiful and sometimes-fractured feminine experience, and perhaps a universal one.
Making handmade prints using alternative processes, Cyanotype over Platinum Palladium, my intention is to give reverence to the genuine beauty of women. My female gaze and act of photographing nude women is a mirror into my own psyche and understanding of what I find beautiful. This is a limited series of 5 each, 4” x 4” or 4” x 6”.