Sylve

Even now, even among a population of queens and studs fed a Heidi Montag ideal of perfection, the smart man can still discern the truly beautiful.

You know it because a roaring excitement feeds the mind. An electric spark fritzes behind the eyebrows at the flash of satin skin and gentle curves. Nothing is inflated by salty bags. The muscles of the forehead aren’t paralysed by botulinum toxin. Lips remain in proportion.
Sylve Colless, a photographer from Sydney, is among the gorgeous (seen here in a late-night bath, a self-portrait). And, to further press her case, the French-speaking photographer and owner of the blog thefivepointfive.tumblr.com, is lucid in conversation.

I ask her why she shoots photos? She replies, “Its about control. You choose your subject and how you want to shoot them. You control your camera settings, you choose to what degree you manipulate your image and you choose what context it’s used in.”

I ask her what photos she loves. She replies, “Jurgen Teller, Kate Moss. The image where she is laying in bed, she looks about 14 and her hair is bright pink. She has a beautiful innocence about her. Also, Robert Mapplethorppe’s ‘Jim and Tom, Sausalito 1977’. This photograph is insane and courageous. One day he shot the royal family and the next he is shooting a brutal torture scene. And, Richard Avedon’s photograph of the ‘hairless beekeeper’ (the Buddhist version). There’s this amazing serenity but at the same time its so haunting.”

It’s ironic that Sylve says she likes, “imperfections in people. Innocent, but not. People are so strange.”
As for beauty, Sylve finds it in “grace, confidence and intelligence. Somebody who loves themselves without arrogance.” – Derek Rielly.