National Post (Canada)
July 30, 2005 Saturday
Toronto Edition

Beautiful dreamer: Date With Arline Malakian

Susanne Hiller, Weekend Post

Arline Malakian thinks about beauty all the time. Over the past two
decades, the elfin fashion photographer has taken thousands of photos
for glossy magazines and high-end retail clients such as Alfred Sung,
Nygard and Holt Renfrew.

“I live and create beauty but I fight it, too,” said Malakian, 45,
over lunch this week at the Pure Spirits Oyster House and Grill in
Toronto’s funky Distillery District. “For me, there is always that
battle to fight what beauty can become, that idea that beauty has to
be perfect.”

Despite a power outage downtown, the restaurant is one of the few in
the area that has remained open. They have produced a hastily
improvised barbeque menu. For Malakian, who is pretty much a health
freak, it is just good karma.

“That means the calamari will be grilled, right?” Malakian asks the
waitress. “Oh good, that is exactly the way I like it. You have to
respect your body.”

Malakian chose this spot to meet not only because she loves seafood
but also because she frequents the nearby photo lab. And even though
she works at the other end of town, she likes hanging out here,
poking around the art studios and galleries. She knows the district
well: She had lots of suggestions for the National Post photographer
about pleasing corners with decent lighting.

She is slightly nervous because after our lunch she is attending the
first screening of Beauty Quest, a documentary in which she is the
subject. The film focuses on her attempts to shoot “the defining
picture of beauty” over the course of two months on the streets of
Toronto, an interesting assignment for a woman who is used to working
with models, beauty teams, elaborate sets and big budgets.

“And also I was not used to being filmed,” says Malakian, who looks
like a model herself in her skinny jeans and huge wedge heels. “I had
to learn to forget and allow the moment to be. I was surrounded by
film crew and I had to learn to let myself become one body with
everyone around me.”

This is how Malakian talks. She is all about “true essences” and
“windows to the soul” and watching educational TV. But she is so
sweet and friendly that her earnestness doesn’t come across as
contrived or annoying.

Born in Beirut of Armenian descent, she moved to Toronto with her
family and went to the Ontario College of Art and Design. She took
two photography courses and opened her own studio when she was 25.
She moved to Paris soon after to find her “own language and free
herself of constraints.” It was only then that she could return to
the commercial world with some peace of mind.

“The responsibility,” she sighs, sipping on her sparkling water and
picking at her organic greens, “it weighs on my shoulders. I do not
want women to be inspired by a beauty that is unachievable.
Hopefully, I am not imposing. In that glossy world, my pictures are
fantasies, not norms.”

For this doc, however, she photographed ordinary women of all ages
and backgrounds, everyone from veteran journalist June Callwood to
card-playing seniors. Malakian eventually decided she needed to do a
self-portrait.

“I felt in order to undress others I had to undress myself. I had to
think ‘what glasses do I wear when looking at myself.’ At the end, I
had to ask the question: ‘Can I be completely detached from my own
reflection?’ I found that even if we do believe that beauty is an
inner thing, it is difficult not to judge yourself. So, for me,
personally, the beauty quest continues.”

And what photo did she choose as defining beauty?

After much deliberation, she selected an image of a 22-year-old woman
wearing a hooded sweatshirt on a streetcar. The photo will be
featured in the Dove Real Beauty Photography Exhibit, which is
touring Canada in August. It features the work of other well-known
female photographers such as Annie Leibovitz.

“I don’t know much about that girl I met on the streetcar. She was
unemployed and she was worried she hadn’t washed her hair. But we
made a real connection. She allowed me to see her beauty and I
allowed her to feel beautiful. She skipped her stop so I could
photograph her and we had this magical moment.”

Malakian asked the women she photographed to share their thoughts on
self-image and beauty. A design assistant who sews for the Comrags
clothing line, for example, defined beauty as the ability to “juggle
real life and not look like a hobo.” An 84-year-old woman told
Malakian she didn’t consider herself beautiful, but felt she was “not
hard to look at.”

“One person said ‘God made me the way I am and I have to honour it,’
” she says. “That was beautiful. It was refreshing. I thought there
would be more stereotypes.”

GRAPHIC: Black & White
Photo: Yvonne Berg for National Post; Accustomed to being behind the
camera lens, Arline Malakian found herself the subject of a
documentary about finding beauty.