Me, Myself and I

“There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness in the proportion.”

― Edgar Allan Poe

Where I am now is not where I used to be.  In the past, I created a lot of space between me and strangers or people I hardly knew when in close proximity, physically.  Looking others in the eye used to be one of the most unsettling experiences for me.

Are they looking at me, or are they looking at what makes me unattractive?

The standard in which I “graded” myself was set by what I saw around me.  Whether it was on a magazine or that girl who got all the attention I desired.  I never looked in the mirror and graded myself off of what I saw gazing back at me.

Within the last several years, I have slowly uncovered a wonderful secret. Would you like to know?

I will only see myself as beautiful as I believe myself to be.

No more do I rate myself.  No more do I compare myself to the woman next to me.  And I absolutely, positively will never let someone judge me for how I look.  Because I look like me, and will never look like “her.”

This year, I will dive into me and bring to you a series of self portraits that explore the beauty and “strangeness” I see in myself.

January’s set of self portraits is about flattering myself with my work.  I’ve been pursuing photography for four years, and I’ve found myself attracted to fashion, conceptual/fine art and documentary photography.

(Side note: I don’t consider myself to be fashion forward by any means!)

I enjoy doing self portraits, but I’ve never tried to combine my interest in fashion photography with me as the model.  Therefore, I grabbed an outfit from my closet and decided to be my model and capture my personal beauty and appeal!  (Thanks to two talented friends, Caitlyn Shaw and Nizar Wogan.)

I’m not the most fashionable.  I don’t have the most current outlook on what’s “in” and what’s “out.”  What I do have are clothes in my closet and a camera in my bag.  Let’s see what I can create this year!

 

PS – A shoutout to my ladies Kaori and Noriko for coming along and helping with the shoot!