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In which Adam is unabashedly happy while looking his age, and I love it.
It's been a minute since we've seen Adam out in the world; the press tour for Gucci's premieres petered out at the end of November, and our favorite cryptid seems to have been happy to quietly slip back into hiding. Other than a single brief mention of a sighting of him with Joanne in a sunny, warm place, all has been silent on the Adam front, and I have to think he's enjoying being Not Busy Working for the first time in almost 18 months. Or I hope he is, anyway.
Any road, the Rats are a bit starved at the moment, so it was a delight to wake up to this little nibble the other day; two new photos and a short, five question accompanying interview in which he's as genial and generous as he was during the Gucci press tour. It's a delightful morsel, in which he confesses to having actually watched the Burberry ad and to his love of horses. Given how very thoroughly he's disappeared, and the relaxed tone of his responses, I suspect that the photos and interview date from November. But I don't care if they're already 2 months old, they're new to ME, and I love them, so much, despite some oddities.
Really the only thing I mildly object to in these photos is the lens the photographer used; it's clearly NOT the usual you would use for a portrait, as there's some noticeable distortion. The broad planes of his forehead and cheekbones are narrowed, emphasizing the upswept quiff of his hair and giving his head a somewhat pointy aspect, and his nose is even more prominent than usual, which is not kind to someone with a face that's already been dubbed "unusual." I could have tried to correct for the lens distortion using some photoshop magic, but I decided to just embrace the wonkiness of it, because it doesn't really detract from what I do love.
First, this isn't his polite, "this is me smiling" smile, it's a REAL smile. It's not carefully photogenic; this is an, eyes disappearing into crinkled crescents of delight from the force of his good humor, smile, and the depth of those crinkles just reflects the depth of his amusement. It's the same kind of smile he had when that dog barked off camera in that zoom interview, the kind he gets when he's laughing about something Moose did; it lights up his entire being. I will never know what someone said or did to prompt this smile, but I'm so very grateful to the photographer for capturing and sharing it with us.
And second; he looks his age, silver hairs, fine lines, double chins, and all.
Pretty much every role he had this year involved wearing wigs, so he's not been asked to hide those fugitive silver gleams, and I'm so very happy to see them streaking through the night of his hair like the trails of falling stars. Some folks say their white hairs are coarse and unruly, but his seem to be very fine, and I suspect the shine of his hair is hiding a fair few more in plain sight.
And then there's all the fine lines, which have been becoming steadily more apparent even when his expression is neutral, slowly settling in to stay. There's the faint forehead furrows, the parenthetical curves over his brows and the three vertical lines between them, as well as the dimples and those glorious tangles around his eyes. Seeing those eye crinkles fully engaged like this charms my socks right off; just look at how they frame the delight in his face!
Last but not least, we have those adorable double chins. Even when he's slender, Adam has a habit of tucking his chin while he lets loose a gust of laughter, making the skin under his jaw fold; it's entirely unselfconscious and I love that he just doesn't care whether it's photogenic or not. When he's more comfortably padded, like he is here, it's interesting to see how his dimples extend BELOW his jaw, lining up with those sweetly soft extra chins.
There are those who lament the appearance of these kinds of things, but I am clearly not one of them. To suggest that one can only be beautiful by looking young is the height of ageism, and I reject it utterly. The marks of age on people are, to me, like kintsugi; they're beautiful evidence of a life lived, damage and healing, sorrow and joy.
And I loved getting to render every bit of that evidence on his joyful face.
Photo used for reference was taken by Tim Walker for the "Best Performances" edition of W magazine published on 11 Jan 2022; with thanks to AdamDriverCentral on twitter for sharing the 4k version.
About 12 hours of work; getting those crinkles to be enough without also being too much was a balancing act that took a while.
It's been a minute since we've seen Adam out in the world; the press tour for Gucci's premieres petered out at the end of November, and our favorite cryptid seems to have been happy to quietly slip back into hiding. Other than a single brief mention of a sighting of him with Joanne in a sunny, warm place, all has been silent on the Adam front, and I have to think he's enjoying being Not Busy Working for the first time in almost 18 months. Or I hope he is, anyway.
Any road, the Rats are a bit starved at the moment, so it was a delight to wake up to this little nibble the other day; two new photos and a short, five question accompanying interview in which he's as genial and generous as he was during the Gucci press tour. It's a delightful morsel, in which he confesses to having actually watched the Burberry ad and to his love of horses. Given how very thoroughly he's disappeared, and the relaxed tone of his responses, I suspect that the photos and interview date from November. But I don't care if they're already 2 months old, they're new to ME, and I love them, so much, despite some oddities.
Really the only thing I mildly object to in these photos is the lens the photographer used; it's clearly NOT the usual you would use for a portrait, as there's some noticeable distortion. The broad planes of his forehead and cheekbones are narrowed, emphasizing the upswept quiff of his hair and giving his head a somewhat pointy aspect, and his nose is even more prominent than usual, which is not kind to someone with a face that's already been dubbed "unusual." I could have tried to correct for the lens distortion using some photoshop magic, but I decided to just embrace the wonkiness of it, because it doesn't really detract from what I do love.
First, this isn't his polite, "this is me smiling" smile, it's a REAL smile. It's not carefully photogenic; this is an, eyes disappearing into crinkled crescents of delight from the force of his good humor, smile, and the depth of those crinkles just reflects the depth of his amusement. It's the same kind of smile he had when that dog barked off camera in that zoom interview, the kind he gets when he's laughing about something Moose did; it lights up his entire being. I will never know what someone said or did to prompt this smile, but I'm so very grateful to the photographer for capturing and sharing it with us.
And second; he looks his age, silver hairs, fine lines, double chins, and all.
Pretty much every role he had this year involved wearing wigs, so he's not been asked to hide those fugitive silver gleams, and I'm so very happy to see them streaking through the night of his hair like the trails of falling stars. Some folks say their white hairs are coarse and unruly, but his seem to be very fine, and I suspect the shine of his hair is hiding a fair few more in plain sight.
And then there's all the fine lines, which have been becoming steadily more apparent even when his expression is neutral, slowly settling in to stay. There's the faint forehead furrows, the parenthetical curves over his brows and the three vertical lines between them, as well as the dimples and those glorious tangles around his eyes. Seeing those eye crinkles fully engaged like this charms my socks right off; just look at how they frame the delight in his face!
Last but not least, we have those adorable double chins. Even when he's slender, Adam has a habit of tucking his chin while he lets loose a gust of laughter, making the skin under his jaw fold; it's entirely unselfconscious and I love that he just doesn't care whether it's photogenic or not. When he's more comfortably padded, like he is here, it's interesting to see how his dimples extend BELOW his jaw, lining up with those sweetly soft extra chins.
There are those who lament the appearance of these kinds of things, but I am clearly not one of them. To suggest that one can only be beautiful by looking young is the height of ageism, and I reject it utterly. The marks of age on people are, to me, like kintsugi; they're beautiful evidence of a life lived, damage and healing, sorrow and joy.
And I loved getting to render every bit of that evidence on his joyful face.
Photo used for reference was taken by Tim Walker for the "Best Performances" edition of W magazine published on 11 Jan 2022; with thanks to AdamDriverCentral on twitter for sharing the 4k version.
About 12 hours of work; getting those crinkles to be enough without also being too much was a balancing act that took a while.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-18 06:35 pm (UTC)From:There are those who lament the appearance of these kinds of things, but I am clearly not one of them. To suggest that one can only be beautiful by looking young is the height of ageism, and I reject it utterly. The marks of age on people are, to me, like kintsugi; they're beautiful evidence of a life lived, damage and healing, sorrow and joy.
Wise words.