“On film, beauty is not just a surface beauty, but an expressive beauty… The camera has its own code of beauty.”

I was catching up on my Nowness videos last night when I came across this short film about director Pedro Almodóvar. The above quote stood out to me because it encapsulates what I try to capture with my street-style photographs. The expressiveness of a person is what makes them truly beautiful, not the skin they’re born into. When I say it’s easy to photograph stylish people, it’s true. But I’m talking about the expressiveness and the creativity of people who manifest an extraordinary appearance through the way they present and carry themselves, not the physical beauty their genetics bestowed. Though it’s very difficult to capture a person’s essence with still photography, I aim for it in every shot. Sometimes I achieve it and other times I don’t. It’s about that process of striving every time I stop someone on the street. The clothing and the background and the facial expression are all just pieces of the puzzle. When they fit together correctly, street-style photography goes beyond fashion and straight into the heart of what it means to be human.