Beauty is Bait 

A campaign by Adah Clarence

Hello, I am Adah Clarence mostly known as Gottay, a creative fashion / art and wedding photographer based in Abuja (Nigeria) and the creative studio director of MasterMind Studios. I believe true beauty is like a piece of painted art work, the intercourse of colors, the primary, into the secondary, the pale and the bright, the hues and gradients, palettes of natural and earthy colors all find meaning on one rough surface of canvas; the outcome could be breathe taking, awe inspiring, amazingly beautiful, sometimes messy at close range but distance often lends beauty to the beholder, they say.

As an artistic photographer I have a very weird viewpoint, I said weird because most at times I fail to see things as everyone sees it, the ability to see beauty in ashes, more so ashes in beauty…it’s amazing what my camera picks or extracts.

Once I shot a picture of a girl in a ranch, a messy ranch to be precise. I ensured it that way. When people look upon the picture they all acclaim of its beauty and I ask, “What really is beautiful about the picture, the girl or the messy ranch?

Well if am to comment I will say “EVERYTHING”, perhaps if i crop her out the ranch and fix her amidst the cloud of white celestial Angels the picture won’t have hit the right notes expected, compared to its initial position – and that is true beauty. That also is life.

All forms of beauty have a tincture of ugliness in the right proportion

– Ova

Majority of us are two faced but that’s not the crime. I guess that’s why Zuckerberg permitted us to have two Facebook accounts. The real crime is in your inability to merge them into one you. Be real, even God accepts us the way we are. I am super proud of many models I have come across. “Snow white” is not true definition of beauty; It is only in Shakespearian era that fair overlaps the word beauty but the counterpart of fair was foul, not dark. In fact, synonyms for fair are; reasonable, just, fair-minded, rational, impartial open-minded. The word “fair” does not connote “beauty” in relative to skin complexion, and “dark” is not the opposite of it. Believe me it’s a whole different magic when those lips are full, nose is bold and that skin is dark. The fair and brunette both have their diverse shades of beauty in their own unique ways.

Real womanhood could come strong, elegant, courageous, self-motivated, spirited and confident but not without her passion as a lover, and her love as a mother. It’s the whole package.

Never settle for just the cute looks, it’s only a part. Good looks don’t fascinate me anymore. My camera captures that on a daily basis, but there is this other part that is intangible, not visible to my camera no matter how strong the lens. It’s your unseen self, the inner beauty or bad “character”, that can only be perceived via interaction. A writer once said “beauty is bait” it draws attention so quickly for people to come see what you’ve got inside. Make it worth the chase. Stay beautiful in and out.

Studio: MasterMind Studio

Photographer: Adah Clarence (@gottay)

Stylist: Emem Molokwu (@elegantemem)

Model: Sarah Walter Sokulskyj (@sarahsokulskyj)

Makeup artist: Ezechukwu Ugochukwu Victor (@vugo24)

Beauty is never a part aside the whole… It must be at least a bit of all parts into one unified whole…

-Otto Vonpablo

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This piece is by Adah Clarence, a talented fashion photographer and business man whose work spans everything from street art photography to portraits to magazine covers. His passion for the craft led him to organize fashion photography workshops in Lagos, enabling him share his knowledge and contribute to the fast-growing industry in Nigeria. Some of his work was previously featured here.