Lou O’ Bedlam’s Friday Feature: Alie Ward

By Lou Noble on November 20th, 2009

• Share
• Link to StumbleUpon
• 2 Comments

When I went over to Alie’s house for our second photo shoot, I got to watch her, as my mother says, “put on her face.”

I’d arrived a bit early, early enough she hadn’t finished getting ready. (There were issues with her plumbing, and the plumbers were giving her the runaround. They were gonna show up early, then not for days, then maybe that afternoon. Very disconcerting.) I think it was all the mess with the plumbers that had her just too weak to resist, unwilling to worry about me watching this ever-so-sacred female act. She kept saying “you’re not supposed to see this.”

She kept saying it, but he didn’t hide away in the bathroom, didn’t send me into another room to play Sim City on my phone while she got ready. (I’m getting really good at Sim City on my phone, btw.) In a way, I relished the amount of comfort & trust she was giving me, allowing me to see her in such a physically vulnerable way.

So I sat quietly, only speaking when spoken to, let her do her thing, made but one request: “If you could, how about you put on as little as you feel comfortable with.” It’s something I commonly ask my models, when I remember. (I got a memory like a steel sieve.)

With Alie, though, it was worth mentioning because her make-up is very intentional and has a definite effect on the look of her face.

Her style is fairly vintage, and her make-up tends to accentuate that effect, give her a bit of a ’50s look that’s quite strong. Quite attractive, too.

BUT.

Seeing her without her make-up, I realized that, if I could get her to leave most of it off, I’d get a more honest portrait of her, a very different feel to all of the shots.

As she put on her make-up, we talked. And she put on more make-up. I didn’t mind. I knew when I asked that the odds were against me. Because this is how it’s supposed to be, yeah? And yet, I would personally much prefer if women didn’t wear make-up. But that there would start a whole Thing, wouldn’t it? No make-up, well then maybe no shaving, then nobody shaves, then we live in a world where everybody looks like they live on Planet of the Apes.

And yet, I’d love to see this city without make-up for just one day. I’d love to be able to photograph folks as they really are, maybe that’s it. Warts and all. Well, maybe not warts. Those are gross.

In the end, Alie ended up applying her normal amount of make-up, and we had ourselves a splendid shoot, because make-up or not, she is a stunner. But don’t be surprised if I show up early next time she & I shoot. By accident, of course.