The Perception of Beauty Is an Interesting Thing
It’s interesting because if you want to know how you perceive yourself, you have start with noticing how you perceive others. The world is it’s own mirror of how you see yourself.
Now, if you’ve watched the video, you might be wondering what the hell are they looking at?
It’s a mirror.
They are looking at themselves.
No, they didn’t know there would be a mirror, and yes those tears, wrinkles of doubt, and smiles were not scripted.
It was the Fall of 2016, in an entertainment room turned make-shift studio, where we shot for two days. Eight courageous volunteers from Facebook showed up to share their story through the obnoxiously close and slow-motioned display of their bodies. And just when they thought it was over, they were invited to strip even more layers – to dare and show the world how they really see themselves, because you and I both know that’s the real story.
The unforeseen mirror was greeted by a mixture of grimaces and raised eyebrows.
“What do you see? What words are coming to your mind? Now, all you’ve got to do is spend a few moments here honestly, truthfully seeing yourself. And when you get to a place of fully loving and accepting yourself – just signal us and we’ll stop the camera.”
Then, everyone on set turned their backs and left the camera to record the chasmic battle between love and fear; a person and their own reflection.
I didn’t see the footage until I started editing. I remember crying, because of how beautiful it was to watch people go through such genuine moments with themselves. It’s almost as if you can hear the thoughts running through their minds – very much like the ones we all have – and that breakthrough moment when you decide it’s all bullshit and realize you’re a f-ing beautiful piece of art.
That’s the real beauty. Or how I see it anyway.
Beauty is multifaceted; it’s all-encompassing and undoubtedly subjective.
We wanted to capture more than the stories skin deep. We wanted to capture the essence of beauty that pervades time, location, and reality itself: beauty in what the volunteers saw, and then chose to see; beauty in the fear and doubt, all of us can understand; beauty in what you saw in the reflection of your own judgments; beauty that lives in the very moment we wake up to our naked worth and beauty.
