and hair to cover the areas I knew she wouldn’t want to see. When I was
done I was exhausted.
This was in the days of film, so two weeks later the young lady and her
mother came in to see the portraits. I happened to be there, so I stood by
while they looked at all the images. As the mother looked at the proofs she
started to cry. She walked up to me, hugged me, and said, “I always tell my
daughter that she is a beautiful woman, and these portraits show the beauti-
ful woman that I see.”
At that moment, I realized what I try to teach in all my books: it is not
aboutus,it is aboutthem.This is challenging. In the United States, the pop-
ulation is heavier (and more self-conscious about it) than ever before. Addi-
tionally, the standard of beauty that we see in the media keeps going up,
getting farther and farther away from the average client. As a result, many
People deserve to look great in their images. Your job as a professional photographer is to make
this happen for them.