women

They must have known that I'd love it: they gave me Annie Leibovitz's Women, a book full of wonderful photographs of women, women in almost every profession you can think of, famous women, ordinary women, astronauts, farmers, race car drivers, waitresses, politicians, CEOs, show girls, mothers, activists, maids, poets, actors, writers, teachers, coal miners, soldiers, surgeons. The portraits are large and generous. Some women smile, most are serious, and each one of them looks beautiful. Not in that standard textbook manner, no no, this is a much deeper and much more important kind of beauty, a more genuine beauty, the kind of beauty you can see in the people you love. Being able to show such beauty in a fickle photograph must take great skill and generosity in the photographer.

I spent an hour leafing through the pages with my daughter. So many possible lives, for a woman. Reading out the professions for my daughter I realise that this is what we need for our daughters, for ourselves: real portraits of real women.