STORIES, STORIES

One time in my parent’s home in Jeddah, while digitizing our old family photos, I stopped to really look at my parents and their faces. Both he and my mother had the good looks of the young and privileged, the strong features that would aid in their graceful aging in the years to come – prominent cheekbones, jawlines, distinct eyebrows, unobtrusive noses, eyelashes for miles, svelte frames. What beautiful people they were from a relatively objective point of view.  I envied them this, and once afterwards had a conversation with my father – one of many that we have – that led to a discussion of physical appearances. Being an artist in every sense of the word (he paints, he sketches, he produces art installations and professional photography, he writes, and he mixes all media), it was inevitable that I would be curious (as an adult) about his take on human attractiveness. After all, he is in the business of finding beauty. This was an online conversation a few months ago, a...