In my life, I haven’t thought much of my looks. Well… SOMETIMES I’ll look in the mirror after I’ve spent an hour doing my hair, makeup and clothes and i’ll think — “hey not bad! I look pretty good!” But then there are some day when i just DON’T LIKE HOW I LOOK. I wonder why my nose isn’t a little less wide or why my lips kinda poof up at the top (I swear I have fish lips sometimes! hahaha) or why my eyes are SO DARN SMALL (stupid asian genes!). The color of my eyes are too dark and the length of my hair is too short. My body is too lumpy and my legs are too short. My upper body is bigger than my lower body and my ankles are too skinny for my legs. My arms are too big, my shoulders too broad, my face too pimpled and my overall appearance just not acceptable.
Then… God gave me a camera.
It is so easy for me to find beauty in other people. I see women with wonderful curves walking around and I think to myself, “They probably hate how they look.They probably are starving themselves to make their behind smaller… but don’t they see how beautiful they are because of those curves?”
I LOVE people!! I love how they look, their lumps, their bumps, their big noses, their frizzy hair, their long arms and short hands, their awkward stance, their funny faces!! I LOVE PEOPLE and it’s soooo easy for me to see their beauty!! It is soooo easy for me to see their best attributes! It’s so easy for me to see their worst attributes as BEAUTIFUL as well…
A young woman whom I took pictures of, didn’t like how she looked. I took pictures of her and she couldn’t believe that the girl in the pictures was her! She finally liked how she looked! She finally saw how beautiful she was!!
I am a photographer, not by chance, but by the Hand of GOD. I KNOW THIS. Not only do I take thousands of pictures at a time but in doing it, I am changing the perspective of people through these pictures. I’m showing them how *I* see them — not as flawed but as figured! Not as ugly but as unique!! Not peculiar but as Pretty! God has given me the power to take what people think of themselves and DESTROY it with the power of Love… a loving perspective.
God has shown me that I could use the gift of photography to encourage others, to show them a “loving perspective” of themselves.
Finally, a loving perspective of ourselves instead of the harsh words of the world/self that says we’re not good enough. Finally we will get a chance to say, I am beautiful just as I am.
Shelah Photography … a loving perspective
Love,
Leila