The great photographers of life must have some special quality: a personality of nurturing and non-judgment that frees the subjects to reveal their most intimate reality.

And isn’t this the secret of it all? Nurturing what already exists inside of you without any judgement?

I woke up gloomy at 5 AM after a couple of messy nights. Old habits try to get a foot between the door and I start smashing myself in the face with the things I did not do. The things I do wrong. The things I could do better. As a remedy I try to turn to things that are beautiful outside of myself. My white cotton blouse, my husband, writing, the wild flowers in the garden, these romantic photographs by Ed van der Elsken. And remember that this beauty is also hidden inside of me. It’s no-one else’s job to bring it to the surface but me.