I’m not 28

Two days before our session, he called me saying, “I’ve been thinking about the shoot and I’m nervous because I don’t look like those 28-year old men that I see on your Instagram. They’re young and good-looking.”

I’ve known Baldomero for over a decade. We meet occasionally and one time, I did a drawing of him. This was for an exhibit that celebrated US Veterans. Baldomero served in the Army. Now, I was interested in photographing him as I was certain that a black and white close up of him would look great.

I responded, “You’re right. You’re not twenty-eight years old. Here’s the news, I’m not interested in making you look like them. I very much prefer your look as you are now because this is who you are today.”

I continued, “The kind of beauty that you mention is in your past and it belongs there, when you yourself was 28 years old. But you have gained a whole other kind of beauty, which is rooted in time. The character of your face tells a rich story of a whole life rather than one that is just brooding…finding its way as a twig in the middle of the forest with still much to go before we can call it a tree. Instead, you have seen springs, winters and autumns. That’s what I will capture in our shoot. I consider that matter how a young man tries, he cannot convey the character that has so marvelously traced its way unto your face. That’s because he has to wait three or four more decades in order to earn this virtue. How wonderful that you possess this quality now and here you are–the perfect model for communicating something far deeper than good looks at twenty-eight.”

Indeed, Baldomero makes a wonderful model. After all, there are many forms of beauty. There is beauty in a child, a young man and also as a man who’s face shows us life experience, emotion, and a sense of his spirit. What do you see in his eyes?

Share below your impressions or ask a question. I will be happy to respond.

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