Beauty Without Editing
I love magnolias. They feel regal. Do you know what I mean? They are generally large with big, beautiful petals that have a majestic feel. Did you know magnolias symbolize dignity, nobility perseverance and love of nature?
They also remind me of the South. When I think of a magnolia, I see a beautiful Southern woman, with perfect hair, curled just so. Alabaster skin, cheeks rosy from the Southern heat, lips that look like that are naturally a perfect shade of pink. I can see her sitting on a porch, drinking iced tea, fanning herself and speaking with the kind of Southern drawl that dances on every word.
A few years ago, I was visiting a local attraction called Jefferson Island. It is stunning with gardens throughout that provides an abundance of photo ops and one of my favorite spots here. On this particular visit, I was alone which allowed me to wander a bit and really take my time. Often when I’m shooting, I have an image in my head that I want to capture. This time, I wanted a magnolia. So even as I stopped for other moments of beauty, my eyes continued to scan for the magnolia. Sure, I saw some along the way, but they were small, had missing petals, were turning brown, or were at an angle I simply couldn’t reach.
Then I saw it… it was big and beautiful and I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. I snapped away. When I got home and started reviewing my pictures from the day, I couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed when I reached the magnolia. It had bugs and some of the petals were damaged. There was pollen on the petals. I think it’s called stamen… it’s this sort of light orange pieces that had dropped into the petals.
How had not noticed all those little details when I was taking the picture? But I just saw the large petals that were that perfect stark white against the deep green leaves. I saw the varying shades of green that allowed the white to stand out. I saw the light highlighted on the waxy coat of the leaves. I never noticed the imperfections.
But the more I studied my photo, I couldn’t help but want my flower to be perfect. So, I opened the file in photoshop and started “fixing it”. A dialogue ran in my head as I worked. “Make this brown part green. Remove that little bug. Remove that little piece missing in the petal.” And on I went until I felt I was finished. The end result was stunning, at least to me. I saw what my mind had seen while on location. The imperfections were only seen when I took a closer, harder look.
Often when I show people this particular picture, I find myself showing them the before. Usually with an exclamation of, look what rough shape it was in before? In my mind, I think I’m marveling at how amazing photoshop can be, but the truth is, I think it’s important we see the before and the after.
How many of us strive for the perfect image of the “after”? We compare ourselves to others we know or even ones we don’t, but we follow on social media. And its only then that we start to find all our flaws. We wonder why we can’t be like them. The rub is, we are seeing the “after”. Online, we are seeing perfect angles, and makeup and lighting. We may never know how many photos they took to get the shot. We are getting what they want us to see. The mask, the persona, the “what society wants to see” versus the real them.
There are some people that share the “real”. I will concede that. But many of us know people on a surface level only. We never know the real them, with the real-world struggles and all the outtakes they did to get the perfect tik-tok to post. The times where their phone was at a weird angle and you could see all their chins… when their butt jiggled too much… before they changed it… before they got “photoshopped” so they would be acceptable for public consumption.
When I first looked at that magnolia, I never saw all those little things. I just saw the beauty and I suspect that’s often what people see in us as well. They just see you. After all, are any of us perfect? And we are beautiful just as we are.
My hope is that we start to recognize things like this in our lives and we find the healing we need to accept ourselves and others without the need for photoshop. To see the beauty we possess, the beauty we see in others, both before and after.
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Closing Thought
Beauty exists before and after the edits. May we learn to see ourselves the way love does.
