Through The Photographers Lens

Welcome to Through the Photographers Lens,

In this week's post I wanted to share with you all a question that came
across my mind while riding the subway in NYC this past week. As you may
know by now, as a photographer it is really important that I be able to
see subtle details at a glance. This particular day I happened to notice
two young ladies talking about getting their hair done and it brought me
back to a time where when I was young, the women in my family would go and
get their hair done for special events and the like weddings or special
church events. Otherwise they would spend time either early in the morning
or as a Saturday Girls Day Out doing each others hair and sharing the
stories they've collected since the last hair day. All of the children
would gather in the back yard or in the play room and play for hours with
our favorite cousins and neighbors.

The memories all reminded me that they took the time to make themselves
look as good as can be with the resources they had available and the
people around them often times appreciated the fact that they took that
time to put the effort into their beauty regiment. In listening to these
two particular young ladies on the train, however, I over heard one of
them say “I am going to get my new wig and have someone put it in for me
cause I just don't have time to do it and I can't be bothered.” The
statement got me thinking, what have we become as a society when we don't
take our own self grooming seriously enough to put in more effort than
making an appointment. I also heard one person say “I get my hair washed
every few days cause I don't know how and I just don't have the time.”
Needless to say that brings to mind the question “Well what time are you
saving when you make an appointment to have your hair done which never
starts on time and you have to get it scheduled around your stylist's
availability?”

One thing I always share with the new models I deal with is, in order to
be good at this you have to “commit to your crazy”, and by that I mean you
have to put in the effort to be exactly, if not more than, what you want
people to recognize you as. So if you are going to be a Diva then you need
to be a Diva that people will never forget by being a complete Diva. Total
commitment to your personage and persona yield the self image you want to
project to the world. I also thought about one of my aunts telling her
then teenage daughters that “You ARE beautiful women, so BE beautiful
women,” meaning that in order to be recognized as something you have to
present yourself as such.

So, now I began to think, well if you are perceived as what you present
then how should a person who puts no personal effort into grooming
perceived. How should a person of quality view a person that puts no
effort into themselves, and why should either of them expect anything else
but a superficial interaction built on image instead of quality or truth.
The Question then becomes if you can't put the effort into yourself, then
why should someone else be held to a different standard?

Let me know what you think,

Rahim Baskett
Photographer
MindSoulVision Photography
Url: http://www.mindsoulvision.com/
Email: Rahimb@mindsoulvision.com