The winter was coming to an end, but it was still far until real spring, which is no earlier than late March or early April in Moscow, I was feeling in a desperate need of flowers. I had no one to give them to me, or rather, my boyfriend felt reluctant about flower giving. So I decided to make a series of photographs explaining the importance of flowers in a woman’s life. It was apparent to me that flower portraits are too common-place, everyone has once been photographed with a flower in their hair or against a blooming lilac tree. I needed to think of something else, something more acute, to get my message across to the people. Then I thought of blind people, blind women to be more exact. Someone who cannot see but can feel the flowers, in the broader meaning of the word feel. My experience of doing this project turned out to be a very complicated and stressful one, but spiritually enriching and eye-opening. A quest for beauty, an attempt to understand what it is.
One blind girl was told that she looks withered and not really beautiful in her photograph – just like a withered daisy. That’s what she wrote: I don’t want these photographs, let’s pretend they never existed.
What are the criteria of beauty? What is visible beauty? Can the ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’ exist in the perception of someone who does not have the instrument of assessment, the eyesight? Why do people impose their understanding of what is beautiful and what isn’t on one another, and, what’s even worse, on people who for physical reasons are unable to have their own idea about it.
I questioned nine blind women aged 24-72 about what beauty is and took their portrait picture with flowers. I presented each of them with their favorite flowers. It was important that it be their favorite ones, so before each session I had to have detailed information: if one likes roses, what color they should be, if orchids, whether they should be the larger of smaller kind. Sometimes I would phone them from a flower shop in order to find out something, a nuance I felt uncertain about. Irina likes lilies, preferably light-colored, Tatiana loves tulips, especially when they are still in buds. To Galya and Lusya, the twins, it is important that the flowers are fragrant: that’s why they equally like peones and chrysanthemums, they are less concerned about the color or size.
The question of beauty is an eternal one, it is as old as the humanity itself. How old is the humankind? For as long as giving flowers has been regarded as an affirmation of beauty, a declaration of love. The symbolic importance of flower-giving was never disputed. But things have changed. Men no longer give flowers, seldom hold doors for you to pass, give their hand to help you get off a bus and let you pass ahead of them when entering a room. The very idea of femininity, or rather, let us use the word womanhood, has changed in a strange way. Men are becoming more and more woman-like whereas women no longer hesitate to openly compliment and give flowers to one another. Men with masculine behavior and women with feminine behavior are becoming alarmingly rare. These are the 21st century minorities. Women now can do almost anything, while men’s potentials are decreasing. To give flowers to a girlfriend has become an almost-exploit. But girls, of any age, irrespective of social and gender changes, still want flowers: they like it when the flowers are given to them, they feel good when there are fresh flowers on their office desktop or night table at home. Call it a happiness hormone or something else, but flowers have a positive influence on female nature. They create a delicate atmosphere of happiness where girls feel comfortable. And this is not a question of color, shape or volume, it’s something beyond. That’s why even blind people can perceive flowers to the same degree as people who have eyesight. They don’t see them, but the flowers are no less important and the effect of happiness upon receiving them is no less prominent, on the contrary, it is more evident than it would be with ordinary people. Because flowers appear much more rarely in their life: for an apparent reason. Natasha’s husband explained that he dreads going into flower-shops: a blind person is too easy a customer – can buy anything – from broken to withered and rotten flowers. What’s the point? He doesn’t see anyway…
The answers to my question about beauty were different ones, some of them were completely unexpected. Anastasia, for example, said that the most beautiful thing for her is a sunset on the seashore. Whereas human beauty on the physical level is of less importance: what she values most in people is kindness. Tatiana said that almost never thinks about beauty, but if she had to give her opinion, she would say her son Misha’s face is beautiful. Galya and Lusia, the twins, said that to them beauty is about the special feeling of exhalation, festive mood, when one is happy and light-hearted. Another lady said that to her beauty is about being, feeling in love. Why then did she refuse to collect her printed portrait from me, and accompanied her rejection with the following comment: “My relatives didn’t recognize me. They said I am fat and look around fifty. Not at all beautiful”.
So where is the truth? Does beauty equate kindness? No it doesn’t. Since even blind people tend to treat its lack or absence as a major disappointment. The girl with daisies rejected my proposal of another, hopefully more successful photoshoot, moreover, she categorically rejected any initiative on my part to be of help or service to her. It appears, that just as receiving flowers is perceived by women as a physiological manifestation of male attention, in the same way, beauty in conventional European sense remains an unquestionable feminine possession that women strive to achieve, are anxious to keep, constantly jealous of and always wary of losing. And kindness, what about that? We are still living in the society where kindness is a plus but beauty is a must.
Varvara Lozenko
