Confidence, Beauty, and Photography

I recently read an online article that came with a video attached to it called

Student Captures What Happens When People Are Told They Are Beautiful

An 18 year old Chicago high school student started a project that turned into a social experiment. She started taking pictures of things she thought were beautiful. She asked her teachers and peers if she could take a picture of them for a project she was doing…. And then she told them that she was taking pictures of things she thought were beautiful. The way the people’s faces changed when she told them that amazed me. So many people blushed, smiled, giggled, or something of the like. Others got more distant, thought she had to be pulling their leg, or got upset with her.

I think this shows a couple things about our current society. Our society and fast paced media/advertising pushes photoshopped, flawless models in our face so constantly that normal, everyday humans have a hard time thinking that they can be beautiful. Everyone is unique and holds beauty in them in different ways, but we have been conditioned to think that beauty is just skin deep. I have had many encounters with “beautiful” people who were not inherently beautiful. They had terrible morals, attitudes, and uncaring, selfish views. That made them unattractive to me. Then I have met people who were such wise, caring, glorious beings that they became more beautiful to me at each interaction.

There are self-confidence issues abound in our world and I love the fact that Shea did this study. I love making people smile, or trying to brighten their day. Making people realize that they are beautiful and making them feel beautiful is a great idea. I try to bring out everyone’s personality when I shoot them and this reinforced my desires. I find it so sad that some of the people came at her with hostility or non-belief when she told them that they were beautiful. It makes me hurt knowing that there are people in the world without others building their confidence up;  without being given doses of love and affection and understanding. Everyone deserves to be confident and comfortable with who they are and with their own uniquely beautiful natures. I encourage everyone to watch the video at the end of the article to see the reactions of the people involved in this study!

Student Captures What Happens When People Are Told They Are Beautiful

I will continue to make people laugh and feel beautiful in my daily life and will continue with Shea’s experiment in documenting all of the beauty in this world. Thank you Shea for seeing the beauty in others. You are beautiful to me….