From time to time I stumble on some heated debate around subject on women with and without makeup. For example , right now one going on at huffingtonpost.com
I decided to touch on the subject here. In a photo world there is a common practice to show “before” and “after” images. At the first glance, the practice might seem as a clever marketing strategy, as people attracted so much to transformation. However, this goes much deeper.
I was hesitant to add “before and after”s for a longest time. But then, when talking about glamour photosession, more and more I started to hear from women “I can’t pull it off. You’re photographing models, and I don’t have the look” line. Oh boy… I started reading and talking to other professional photographers about this phenomena. This is so common!
Before and after images serve one very important purpose: inspiration. The message sent is: “I can do it, and you can do it too!”
All of us lucky carriers of XX chromosome pair are capable of being a muse, dream, icon… when we want to. If we allow ourselves. (subject of self-esteem arises during nearly every session, but that is a different story).
That “if” and “when” happens when we have opportunity to slow down, to strip away daily worries, to put all those roles we have in our lives temporarily on a shelf, and to spent time with ourselves.
Make-up, good light, right pose helps to amplify what we already have. And then we get to that shine in the eyes, to effortless poise, and dreamy portrait is created!
To be fair, I’ll share my own B&A. “Before” is done by dear friend Lana during one of the playdates, “after”s are done by my best half.
Click for more B&A