Finding the Beauty in Albinism

Rick Guidotti worked at the top of the fashion industry with companies like Elle, Marie Claire, and L’Oreal; worked out of a studio in New York City; and traveled to places like Italy for shoots. Then he gave all that up. What could prompt such a decision?

“I was just always told who was beautiful, told this is the standard of beauty, this is the model of the moment, and that’s who I had to photograph, or someone who looked like that… But you know, I’m an artist. I see beauty in every moment. I don’t just see beauty in someone’s idea,” he says.

Guidotti’s photographs were on display last Thursday and Friday in the Science Center lobby as part of an event entitled “Prejudice and Violence Against Albinos: An International Concern.” The event, organized by The Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, also featured a panel discussion moderated by Dr. S. Allen Counter and featuring Guidotti.

In 1997, Guidotti co-founded Positive Exposure, an innovative arts organization that works with individuals living with genetic differences. Guidotti was inspired to found this organization after he spotted a child with albinism waiting for the bus outside his studio in New York. He was disturbed that though this child was beautiful, she did not meet conventional standards of beauty. “When I went to research,” he says, “I saw horrible photographs. Instead of finding photos of this beautiful kid and people like her, I found horrible images of people in circuses, or kids in doctors’ offices up against a blank wall without their clothes on with a bar against their eyes, of images of kids with red eyes.” The misrepresentation of people with albinism stirred Guidotti’s will to act.

He approached NOAH (National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation), a support group for people with albinism, with a proposal for a series of photographs showing the world what he calls “the beauty of albinism.” To his surprise, NOAH rejected the idea. “I asked why, and they explained to me about their fears of exploitation,” he says. “[They explained] how every time there’s a magazine article about a kid with albinism, it’s about a victim. It’s always a negative depiction. And I thought, ‘That’s insane, we need to fix this.’ So I said, ‘Let’s partner, let’s work together, and you can make sure I don’t exploit these people with albinism.’”

Through cross-sector partnerships with governmental agencies, health advocacy organizations, and educational institutions, Positive Exposure uses the visual arts to empower people with genetic differences. Positive Exposure uses art to effect change in fields like human rights, genetics, and mental health.

Working with Positive Exposure, Guidotti has viewed all regions of the world through his camera lenses. “We’re not working only with kids with albinism, we’re also working with many other genetic conditions as well. It’s about all differences, because there is such universal applicability here. It’s about embracing, celebrating our differences. It’s a message that we all have to hear, that should be in every curriculum, every language.”

Guidotti believes there is an important correlation between art and spreading powerful messages to others. He says, “As an artist, people look away or stare. My responsibility is to steady your gaze long enough. You know, don’t look away, and then you’ll see beauty in the differences... I challenge stigma, address issues of stigma and discrimination, and celebrate diversity utilizing the visual arts.”

Following the exhibit at the Science Center, Guidotti hopes that his work will prove meaningful to the Harvard community. “Ideally, what I’d like to do…is to inspire the heart of this community to utilize whatever tools they have, to utilize any of their own passions to address these issues, whether it’s through journalism, music, sculpture, painting, photography—to utilize their passions whatever they may be.”