“Smile, Baby!”

For Alain and Emilio.  Happy now?*

* Sometimes a portrait is trying to be more than a grinning face, and being told that my self-portraits would be ‘better’ if I smiled, feels a lot like the experience women have when they walk down the street and have strange men tell them to “smile.” Why do they feel they have the right to do that?  My body.  My self. My smile.

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10 comments

  2. I rather see a smiling face than a serious face; I rather see a laughing child than a crying one. I prefer photographs that do not make me wonder if anything is wrong.

    I prefer things that subtract from the list of concerns than add to them.

    I’m not asking anyone to do anything. But, if asked, I will say what I think. So no, no need to smile, but the question then is “why not”?

    A few posts ago you had a photo of your husband (at customer pickup). He did not have his usual relaxed expression. He could just have been squinting in the sun, but my first thought was “something’s wrong”.

    . . . I never wonder why people are smiling . . .

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  4. La beauté est subjective et on ne peut pas plaire à tout le monde mais pour moi, qui ne suis pas spécialiste du portrait, c’est mon oeil qui me guide. Je trouve cette photo parfaite: vous êtes radieuse et pleine de charme.
    Nota: je n’ai pas dit que les précédentes photos n’étaient pas belles.

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  6. Ah Carissa you have the advantage of being beautiful whether you smile or not. Besides having good features you have a light that shines out of you that is gorgeous . My fave image of you so far is the one with Nina where you are partially hidden behind her and smiling and the other image is the one taken long ago with your Dad.

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