The Beauty of Imperfect Photos

Hanoi, 2016 #cindyproject
Hanoi, 2016 #cindyproject

I very much believe in the “beauty of imperfection” — that everything in the world is “imperfect” in one way or another. You will never see a tree in nature which is 100% symmetrical. You will never find a river that is 100% straight. You will never find an organism which is totally symmetrical on the left and right side.

In photography, we try to make “perfect” photos. We try to make clean compositions, we crop distractions out of our photos, and we try to post-process our photos to make them shine as much as possible.

Yet whenever I spend too much time trying to achieve “perfection” in my photos — I feel that my photos lose a bit of soul. This is why I don’t like to crop my photos — sometimes a small imperfection here and there makes the photo more beautiful in my own eyes. It is a reminder that nothing in life is perfect, and that is what makes it beautiful.

I love Cindy for all perfections and imperfections. In-fact, her imperfections are what causes me to love here even more. It means that I need to work harder to be patient, loving, and compassionate. If Cindy was 100% perfect in every way — my relationship with her wouldn’t be as meaningful. My life wouldn’t have as much purpose. I would feel a bit lost.

A simple reminder

Of course as photographers, we’re trying to make as beautiful photos as we can. That is how composition and framing works — we decide what to include in the frame, and what to exclude from the frame.

But just always keep that in mind— photography and life doesn’t need to be perfect.

So perhaps next time, don’t crop your photos as much as you need to. If your exposure isn’t perfect, don’t fret so much. Perhaps the imperfection of your photos being out-of-focus can add more charm to your images.

I’m not perfect, you’re not perfect — nobody is perfect. Yet we’re all beautiful, just the same.

Always,
Eric