glamour

I was inspired by Athena to do some glamorous self-portraits. Grace Kelly was her inspiration, and I was going for Audrey Hepburn here.

Heaven help me, but this was a lot of work! I was surprised at how scanty my make-up looked in the photos, because I really slathered it on. The hardest part was putting on the fake eyelashes. But oh, how I loved them once they were on! I've always wanted to try on fake lashes. Audrey Hepburn was almost never photographed without them once she was famous. I also put on black liquid liner. I'm not good at it. In a lot of the photos you could tell that I'm not good at it. I thought I had managed a big, thick, black line, but now I see that I would have needed it even thicker to get a real Audrey look. I am tempted to try it again another day. Next time I want to try the camera timer so that I can get shots from further away.

These photos are not the greatest but it's a start.

When I think of glamorous photos, I think of Auntie Lee. When I was about ten or eleven, Auntie had graduated from high school and lived across the street from us in a trailer for a little while. I always walked into Auntie's trailer reverently, practically holding my breath. Not only was she the epitome of glamour, but everything she touched seemed to turn beautiful. She and her friends dressed up and did their make up to look like movie stars and then they took pictures! It was SO cool! Now, that woman was gifted with hair and make up. I had a picture of her in a fur coat standing in front of a Christmas tree. I used to take it to school, show it to my friends, and brag that she was my aunt. I would normally get very satisfying responses, like "No way! She's gorgeous!"

Auntie, whatever happened to those photos?

Check out this short film from Dove's campaign for real beauty.