A few weeks ago my 9 year old daughter and I were watching TV when she says, “I want to look like her.”

        Considering I am a photographer I spend a lot of time enhancing people’s beauty through Photoshop and my daughter has watched and giggled while I do this, my response was, “She doesn’t really look like that, you know. You see what I do when I work from removing pimples to smoothing out skin and hair. Also she has a professional make-up and hair artist and there are people there manipulating lighting and other things to make her look like that.”

        She just sighed and said, “I know but I still want to look like that.”

        Well this made me sigh and think. It seems like no matter how much our logical thought may tell us this is an impossibility to achieve, our emotional selves still believe we are lacking.

        It astonishes me how we perceive our lives through two dimensional representations, whether it be a photograph, TV, magazines or just the top surfaces of other lives. What we keep failing to grasp is what two dimensional things are failing to show us is depth. In this depth is where true beauty lies.

       Take this for example, have you ever held a photograph of a lover when they are absent from your life. No matter how wonderful this photograph may be it cannot begin to show you the true depth of that person. It cannot show how the sound of their voice or the scent of their skin can enhance their beauty and change how you perceive them.

       For another example let’s use a picture from your wedding day. Someone else’s perception of it will be completely different than yours. Show it to someone else and they will a see a smiling happy couple on their wedding day. What you see is another story entirely. And that right there is the point, you see the story. Maybe you see the moment before the photograph was taken, when your spouse whispered in your ear and said you had just made them the happiest person on earth. Or maybe you see the many hard years that have come since that picture was taken and your feelings, perception, is even different from what it was the first time you held the photo in your hands.

       Let me show you one more example. Many of us have had a crush on someone only to find out they were not who they appeared to be in the long run.

       My point here is you cannot get true perspective of beauty from a two dimensional representation. It is that third dimension, life’s depth, where true beauty lies.

       Beyond this whether you see beauty or ugliness in the truth all depends on how you perceive life.

       How you see, perceive, life is a reflection of self but you must first get true perspective before you can change perception.

       Perception is in the eye, at the time, of the beholder. Look deep to see the truth.

Peace, Love and Happiness,

Jen