ALTERED IMAGES

We all want to feel like the proverbial million dollars – but some of us sigh with discontent when faced with images of ourselves. Alexandra Burns, founder of For Your Eyes Only, wants to redress the balance.

Alex is director and creator of FYEO Portraits in Buckinghamshire - an innovative all female company offering sexy, flattering photography just for women. Inspired by celebrity images published in magazines, Alexandra set the studio up to offer women not on the A-list an opportunity to look as glamorous as the women in celebrity magazines. That is, the posed pictures…not the paparazzi ‘caught you with a spot’ shots.

Feminism

“My student days were spent studying feminism and psychoanalysing the male gaze, and its effects on women” Alex explained. “.As a photography student during the nineties, I watched in awe as ever more slick and airbrushed models appeared on the pages of magazines.”

“This craze of unattainable beauty, created by an emerging digital age and embraced by the media, was pretty hard going for real women. As cameras became more affordable, and with the arrival of the mobile phone camera, women were seeing more snap shots of themselves, and professional portraits were becoming less popular - this was doing nothing for their confidence.” Alexandra heads a team of six staff, all trained in the FYEO Portraits house style, a clever formula designed for the women we are – normal, imperfect, and beautiful with it!

“ I have always been someone who sees the best in people and can find beauty in pretty much everyone.” says Alexandra. “My inspiration with FYEO Portraits was to give women a greater feeling of confidence by creating the same edgy, sexy portraits using professional makeup and the photographic techniques adopted by fashion houses and magazines.”

Alexandra plans to open her next studio in the UK within 18 months, and international studios will follow.
Clients include novelists, television personalities and women who are prepared to travel half way across the world to take part in the FYEO Portraits experience.

Famous clients

Novelist Adele Parks called Alex after seeing her advert in Vogue, looking for a unique and personal gift for her partner Jim. Jim and Adele were absolutely thrilled with the results, and Alex and Adele have since been working together to raise money for the charity SPARKS - they will be auctioning a photo shoot prize at a fashion show held at the National History Museum this autumn.

Alex's mission

Alex ‘s mission was expanded in 2005 when she gave birth to Arabella, her daughter. Arabella was born with cleft palate, and after the initial shock, Alex decided to use the condition as inspiration for a new project. “After two weeks of solid crying I pulled myself together to rationalise my feelings about how my daughter was to look and what she would have to go through.

“The irony was painful - I had spent my working life making women look beautiful, airbrushing any imperfections carefully - yet my daughter would be born with a facial disfigurement. One of the hardest parts of discovering the cleft lip was the lack of positive information about women who had been through the stigma of having a facial scar.

“It seems that I now have a mission! I’m not a religious person but I feel my life has more purpose. I want to write a book - a celebration of women born with cleft lip - to show everyone how beautiful, individual and brave they are. “I want the book to help mums like me, who found out about the cleft whilst they were still pregnant, and tell them that everything will be ok. I want to raise awareness about this condition while at the same time celebrating it. I also hope to raise funds for the Cleft Lip & Palate Association (CLAPA) and create a massive confidence boosting exercise - both for me and for all those affected by cleft lip”

Ethos

The whole ethos of the studio is to give women a chance to explore and enjoy more confidence in their body image. Everyone who books can expect a fantastically uplifting experience. Studio staff are highly trained artists, and as they are an all female team they are perfectly equipped to identify with the clients needs. Alex summarises, “My inspiration is to give women a huge confidence boost by showing them that they too can look fabulous and sexy with professional photography.

For too long women have been comparing themselves to a false ideal that the fashion world and the media inflicted upon us. The concept of FYEO Portraits is to work with real women and to provide a vehicle for them to realise their true beauty.” There are no plans for a male FYEO studio – but Alex isn’t ruling it out!