Both Sides Of is an interesting series of portraits by British-born New York-based photographer Alex John Beck that explores our ideas regarding beauty. First, he took unpretentious portraits of various people and then divided their faces into two separate sides, creating two different portraits of each person: one composed by mirroring the left side and the other by mirroring the right.
Beck’s project is based on examining these 2 common beliefs: “1) a perfect symmetrical face is most beautiful. 2) the face is representative of the character.” The photographer argues that each face can be made symmetrical and therefore beautiful. However, Beck’s work suggests other insights that dig deeper than we’d expect. Beck writes: “Within these new forms we see the two characters that are ever-present, embedded in the single face. The less symmetrical they are initially, the more different the characters suggested by each face.”
Even though both characters are always present in one’s face, one is more recognizable than the other, so one dominates the other and is “truer” than the other. At least, this is what the photographer suggests, leaving us plenty of room to consider what is a beautiful face and why.
Source: alexjohnbeck.com
