Beauty has nothing to do with youth
Peter Lindbergh, Photographer/ The Talks
A woman I thought of as beautiful 30 years ago is still beautiful to me now when I look at pictures of her. And even back then, it did nothing for me when someone plastered their face with make-up. If someone comes into the studio like that, they can wash it all off right away, to show the person underneath it all. I have learned over the years, that beauty has nothing to do with youth. Not that I only photographed young girls back then, but today much more than I did back then, I can appreciate how magnificently beautiful Charlotte Rampling can look at over 70 years of age. No teenager can compete with that, especially since Charlotte has never had any work done cosmetically. To have a real human being in front of you, who carries their whole life in their face is amazing. And rare. I think it’s really tragic to mess about with one’s face. When you do portrait photography it really can be quite insane. It’s crazy what is possible today. Photoshop is a huge tragedy in that respect as well, no question! If I work in advertisement, it is definitely not avoidable — especially when it’s about make-up, there is really no way around it. Unless of course, you really resist to the point of refusing the money and end up driving an old Fiat500 for the rest of your life. I don’t go that far! But you can certainly advise the client that retouching afterwards isn’t the greatest idea and offer alternatives instead. There is some development in that direction. Not enough yet, but at least they no longer erase everything from a face. It is meant to express something, that’s what it’s there for; it’s basically witness of a situation or an emotion. I think it’s dangerous, especially with actors, when the expressiveness of the face diminishes. It’s tricky because models are meant to work in front of a camera. They look at the camera, turn towards you. Actors on the other hand are trained to forget about the camera, and that makes a huge difference for my work. Even for someone like Nicole Kidman, it’s a real challenge not to be able to hide behind a role. Even if you’re photographing a diva, the secret is simply not to get angry or make a fuss. The image of women that was dominant back then just did nothing for me. These proxy-women, protected and paraded by some men, simple clothing racks… Terrible.