Having Bedroom Eyes

90 Minutes, that’s the time it takes for a make-up artist to do Kim Kardashian’s make-up! EVERY DAY! Preposterous you might think, it takes us, mere mortals, one minute?  Two?  That’s what it takes to get my face out of the drawer each morning.  What do they do?  Not much,  one would think, the child is beautiful as she is. Perfection comes with a price it seems.

“To consult the rules of composition before making a picture is a little like consulting the law of gravitation before going for a walk. ― Edward Weston 

It’s with this thought playing on my mind that I decided to photograph an average morning in an average home with an average person, in this case our house guest! A home where you may jump on the bed.

Stumbling blocks with doing this “shoot” was clutter!  I took literally dozens of photographs and every time I had to move, shift, tidy and remove  more clutter.  I wanted the look to be clean, white and blue, quiet, serene and Sunday’ish, boy was it difficult. It's only when one looks through a lens that you'll notice all sorts of debris lying around, especially in a confined space.

Today my eye had to listen before I looked, had to look before I saw and had to see what I had in my minds’ eye.

To apply ALL my make-up would take roughly 3 minutes. My bag is in a sorry state, but every lipstick, brush, lotion or cream tells a story.  A mangy blusher brush, bought in 1975, has swiped across my cheeks  when I was a girl, a bride, a mother, when I was happy, sad and inconsolable.  My mascara is a discard left by my daughter after her holiday, the only colours on my palette of eye shadows are the left overs, the ones I don’t actually use and my red lipstick is a dream, one that’s always wiped off.

Yellowed pearls remind me of my childhood, the 50’s, my mother and being grown-up.  They’re too precious to wear every day so I keep them for high days and weddings and especially when I’d like to look like Catherine Hepburn.

Now I know why commercial photographers have art directors, a story board, make-up artists, models and scripts.  The squiggle of toothpaste on a brush is almost too much to ask for, I’m sure one needs a degree to do it properly.   Next time I see an advertisement on T.V. I’ll be less critical and more sympathetic.  Its hard work believe you me.

“Art is what we call...the thing an artist does.

It's not the medium or the oil or the price or whether it hangs on a wall or you eat it. What matters, what makes it art, is that the person who made it overcame the resistance, ignored the voice of doubt and made something worth making. Something risky. Something human.

Art is not in the ...eye of the beholder. It's in the soul of the artist.” ― Seth Godin

Enjoy my Sunday story, it's short and sweet.

All photographs are published with permission.