 Simple
Beauty - A project by the Italian photographer Mario Cipollini
dedicated to the beauty of all those women who do not live on
their beauty; they are portrayed naturally, with no complex
make-up or image processing, no special setting, accessories or
clothing. Photography, beauty, and women, it seems a truism on
which there’s no longer anything to say. All the more so by
means of overexploited nudes.But is it really so? It is a
fascinating topic; we all believe we can recognize beauty,
although it is not measurable. The models proposed on women's
magazines today are very different from those of, say, thirty
years ago; does this mean that what was considered beautiful just
a little time ago is no longer so? Are there canons of beauty
which go beyond fashion?
What is it that makes a woman beautiful? Is it fair to consider
models and actresses the only ones entitled to represent female
beauty? Semplice Bellezza was conceived with these questions in
mind and aims to show a kind of beauty that is different from the
one which is usually proposed to all of us. How? With a series of
nudes and portraits of common women, women who do not work with
their beauty and who are not used to posing in front of the camera.
A book of photographs dedicated to women’s natural beauty:
portraits and nudes or, rather, “nude portraits”. Starring in
this book are normal women, those we meet everyday, at work or in
the street. At first glance this idea may not sound interesting,
as magazines, advertising and calendars are filled with pictures
of more or less clothed women, actresses, models and showgirls.
Still I have the impression that these images often show just one
side of beauty, a side that follows a momentary fashion and
according to which beauty is defined by a precise set of canons.
The tragedy is that we all end by believing it is true: few women
feel really beautiful, plastic surgery flourishes as does the
craze for diets. Beauty surrounds us and we do not even realize it,
you don’t need elaborate make-up or image processing to bring it
out.
This is where the project comes from: portraying female beauty I
meet everyday, trying to do it in the simplest and most essential
way, without special settings or elaborate processing. It is not
always easy, as it is often hard to overcome people's natural
mistrust, especially of those I have just met and asked to pose
for me (and my shyness is not of any help).It is not always easy
to make a model feel at ease as well.
But then everything miraculously fits into place and I have the
feeling that the results are worth the effort. More important
still, the women I have portraied liked their photographs, and I
believe they also feel a bit more confident concerning their
beauty.
I shall be glad to receive your comments.
And models too.
Mario Cipollini is 41, he was born
in Rome but lives in Trieste.
He took his first pictures at the age of 10, in Pompei, with a
Kodak Instamatic. He knew from the start that he liked it a lot,
but it took him a quarter of a century to decide to undertake it
as a profession.Meanwhile he worked as a naval engineer, as a
teacher, as a dive master and a publisher. At present he works as
a photographer mainly for publishing houses: he has worked with
Laura Ronchi agency and various magazines. He prefers black and
white pictures, medium format, but also uses colour films and
leica format. He organizes courses and workshops. Examples of his
works are also to be found at the URL
www.oltremarephoto.com
semplicebellezza.com
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