Natural beauty

Fashion magazines have one major goal: photographing women after having made them look beautiful. They arrive in the studio and go to the make-up artist, the haidresser, and later, the photographer who can give them with one look, confidence. And if this is not enough, there's always the Photoshop possibility, removing a wrinkle, a spot, rings, a crease in one's neck. That's what an image is. It's sometimes a kind of small lie, but a lie every woman (and men?) often dreams about. It's like a game. Even we do it.
Still, famous people who appear in magazines, we mostly know they made-up faces. The French ELLE therefore got the idea to put women without any kind of make-up or photoshop on their covers, because as Sophie Fontanel, who wrote the article, "when these women arrive in the studio you already think they are beautiful, even before putting make-up and we wanted to show this beauty, the one that comes out of these wonderful faces, even with nothing on them". Peter Lindberg, who photographed the 8 women for this 'special' edition of ELLE shared this love of the natural, but still beautiful woman. Lindberg has now been working for a few years in order for the photos 'to show a lot of the stars natural skin'. The photographer has a famous passion for Italian neoralism, that people can guess, truthfully in each and everyone of his photos. The women who have been face to face with the objective for this edition of the magazine are mostly very demanding towards their image, and usually control the most tiny detail of it.
Lindberg apparently wanted a haidresser, make-up artist and manicure there for the day of the shooting, in order for the studio to have its usual look as 'you shouldn't scare someone who comes to present his or her face'. The man also knows most of the women will arrive with make-up on their faces, the make-up artist is also therefore present to take it all off. The removing of the make-up makes skin shine, the one we all hate, but to the famous photgrapher, it's 'what gives energy to faces' and we believe him.
Most of them are French actresses or artists posing for this photoshoot, apart from Eva Herzigova and Monica Bellucci.
Eva Herzigova is not as actress, no she's a model. And models have a very specific relation towards the phorograph. Ageing is synonym of losing the one role of her life but apparently, Eva doesn't care about not being 18 years old. She was only wearing a shirt and a pair of panties for the shoot. Apparently, that's what blondes do, they know the limelight will be on them and Eva laughs without ever stopping, she will be the only one of the 8 women to see this photoshoot as playtime. She says of Lindberg: 'This man there, you let him do and that's it. He looks for you and finds you".
Monica Bellucci is one of France's treasure, married to one of the most famous and successful French actor, Vincent Cassel. She arrived with make-up on the shoot, only to get it removes and admits that being an actress, she is as used to seeing her face made-up as natural, 'I am used to being at my image's service. If you can't accept this, you don't do the job properly'. She trusts Lidberg because she feels what he loves in her, his pictures being 'images out of a Rossellini movie'. Bellucci's pictures show her arrogant and sharp look, as inevitable as when she's playing an important role. She was apparently surprised by the concrete beauty of the photos, by her skin, her tired eyes. And even though she isn't sure of the sex appeal she evidently has on the pictures, Lidberg told her 'your lover, it's because you have this face that he loves you'.