What does it mean when I say someone “photographs well”? If I am honest, it means they meet a certain standard of beauty in my eyes. Of three female entertainers I regularly see photos of on social media (and this idea of “photographing well” is almost always applied to women, not men), two of them “photograph well” and one does when she is fully made up. I do when fully made up and with the camera at a particular angle from my face. This is purely about my idea of what is beautiful.
A more clinical definition as a photographer is photographing well means the person is comfortable in front of the lens. They don’t have to be told to relax. They don’t appear awkward or self-conscious. It has little to do with meeting a standard of beauty and everything to do with how natural and how much like themselves they are with a lens trained on them.
With that definition in mind I can say I photograph very well when I am making a self-portrait. I am learning to photograph well (again, as I was very comfortable in front of a camera as a small child) when someone else is photographing me. I presume all three of the entertainers I originally thought of photograph well, because they seem at east in front of cameras. Another entertainer has admitted she hates being stared at, but judging from her photos she has learned to photograph well in spite of that.
I want to remain aware of this subtle way in which I judge my own and others’ beauty so I can move away from judgment. It is hard to think of everyone as physically beautiful, because I have been conditioned to judge and have preferences. Being aware of this tendency will help me move away from that towards a less judgmental, more universally loving stance. That is important to me not just as a photographer, but as a person.