Meet Rick Guidotti. He’s a fashion photographer who takes pictures of some of the most beautiful people in the world—but they’re probably not who you’re thinking of.
In fact, it’s not even who Guidotti would have thought about even a few years ago. At that time, beauty was epitomized by the supermodels he photographed every day.
Not anymore.
Taken by the beauty of an albino woman he saw at a bus stop and discouraged by the only photographs of people with these types of disorders he could find—clinical photographs in medical textbooks—he set out to take his own pictures.
Now, Guidotti finds and shares the beauty of those often overlooked in discussions of what is beautiful: Those living with genetic and developmental disorders through his organization Positive Exposure.
Guidotti invites to the table voices that are often absent in conversations about beauty. By making this underrepresented group of people vocal as well as visible, he helps enrich the definition of beauty. Beauty becomes a transformative experience — one that can change both the viewer and the viewed.
Guidott’s organization Positive Exposure invites us to “Change how we see, see how we change”. Ultimately, by changing people’s ideas of what beauty can look like, he hopes to “promote a more inclusive, compassionate world where differences are celebrated”.
And that’s the most beautiful thing of all.
—Mark Guidotti’s work is also featured in the new documentary, On Beauty.
Tara is a writer and educator who has a long-standing interest in sociology and women’s issues. She is particularly interested in the way the wedding industry defines and reinforces a single, narrow definition of womanhood.
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