What IS a beautiful photo?

I almost feel compelled to write this, after Thursday evening. I was on here, bored, killing some time for a few minutes when I decided to browse the photography>artistic nudes area, which I NEVER do. But I figured I would see how fast it would take til I filed a report for a porn picture. Well after about 1 minute, I saw this shot that got my attention. It was of a gal who was in her 30s, very overweight, who took some nude self portraits. These weren't snapshots, but were artistically done, she obviously has skill in lighting and posing. I thought to myself " I am going to click on this just to see what people are saying", and ya know, I shouldn't have. What I saw not only disgusted me but pissed me off as well. A few deviants were really going off on her, saying some of the meanest, crudest, and rudest things you can imagine....about her weight and how disgusting she is. I sat in total shock.

But then I started reading her watchers comments and seeing how they defended her and how she would respond with nothing but actually nice words to these people.

Ya know what? I sat and I wrote her a length reply about how I respect her, for everything she does and everything she stands for. She certainly has more balls than I do, I will say that! I couldn't do what she does! I think it's people like her that the world needs more of. Someone who breaks down sociological stereotypes, and makes people think. She basically threw herself to the Wolves on DA, but the message she was sending was loud and clear. And the comments she received indicated that....people these days are sad....and so is humankind.

So with this, seeing all this, I had to ask myself, what is a beautiful photo? What makes people stop and look, longer at one shot than another? What blurs the line between subject matter interest and technical perfection? Can YOU see through the lines, when a model who weighs 400 pounds is nude, and see the beauty within the contained the photo? The lighting, the shadow, the exposure? Or are YOU blinded by societies social blinding of Paris Hilton and what beauty is?

Think about it...you'll get it......maybe....

---John