What do we consider pure?
Is purity truly attainable?
Or is it something that resides within ourselves, something we don’t know how to name until we’ve lost it?
Saying someone is ‘pure of heart’ can be fatalistic and oxymoronic at the same time. When we think of someone being “pure of heart” we imagine innocent, gullible beings, almost as if they were some sort of sacred fairies fluttering in this reality. But is it possible that what we consider to be pure is really just a facade we believe in at our own convenience? Perhaps purity is in the eye of the beholder. Under our gaze we judge someone to be immaculate, completely forgetting that they have a conscious we cannot gain access to. Yet, we would like to think that the thoughts flowing in their minds aren’t as polluted as the evils we face every day in the world.
When we place someone in the “purity box” they immediately gain this crystal-like frailty. At a first glance, we could say that the women Sophie Van Der Perre captures are pure and innocent; however, it is once we look deep into their eyes that we realize something lies beyond. Sophie’s hazy and pastel colored world cannot hide the expressive nature of her subjects. Beneath the pearlescent white sheets and wild pastures, lies a world of wonders. Facing this highly stylized reality constructed by Sophie, we are taken over by the need to dig under the illusion and see what truly lies beneath. These women show there’s no black and white, only shades of gray.
Their gaze is arresting and it disarms us immediately. Even if they are lost in thought, they are expressive and are unafraid to break the mold of innocence society has created for them. If only we had the power to rip away tags and prejudice we would be able to reach a complex world of raw emotion. People are not sacred, pure, or childish. They’re complex and our attraction to them stems from this kaleidoscopic nature.
Purity or innocence is just a temporary tag. And yet, our culture believes it to be traits when actually they’re not. It’s just a stage we go through on our path towards maturity. Youth is a process of discovery. Perhaps not knowing who you are is the real, honest you because you have to live intensely in order to find out your true nature. It is only by pushing the boundaries that you can see who you really are.
When we start making sense of who we are, we wipe away this innocence. We understand the world by walking in it. In a sense, all of these women are somehow passing through that point. By the confident and defiant looks on their eyes, one can tell their minds are hungover on the beauty of life, discovering by themselves some of its hidden wonders. Spreading their bodies towards the sun, they allow their minds and hearts to be filled with the warm caress of light.
Innocence, purity, and frailty are not synonyms. The color white, as blinding as it may be, is also the color of love. It is the most intimate color in the palette, since it is in our bedsheets. It is an alluring color. It makes us feel comfort and peace. Yet, it is most beautiful when it mingles with other hues. There’s no need to keep things traditional. In the end, what’s beautiful is what dazzles. Purity, on the contrary, is nothing but illusionary.
Sophie Van Der Perre is a Belgian photographer based in the Netherlands. She likes to explain her work, mainly focused on femininity, as a mixture of techniques between fashion and documentary photography. You can see more of her work on her Instagram and her own website.
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If you enjoyed Van Der Perre’s work, you might also be interested in checking out Sylvie Blum’s photographs about female power and feline instinct and the series that proves that beauty hurts. ***
References
Lomography
Sophie Van Der Perre
