As for your face being so "damned ugly", you need to know that there are plenty of people out here who love your face just as it is. The sickest thing about Americans is that they think all women need to look like Barbie Dolls in order to be considered attractive. As a result, women in L.A. all have their faces cut up by the age of 40. And they're so brainwashed that none of them seems to realize that afterwards their faces look like bizarre caricatures of what they used to look like when they were teenagers. What's wrong with these people?

Faces are useful only when they communicate something. My idea of a beautiful face is one that reflects the personality well. For example, here's a photo I took of a homeless person outside my building in 1970. His face is beautiful because it shows clearly how earnestly he's trying to relate to me.

What about native peoples, who don't look anything like Barbie Dolls? Can they be beautiful? I think so. In my book, any face that reveals a beautiful person inside is itself beautiful.

And I'm not the only person who knows something about facial beauty. Check out the books (1890), by Jacob Riis, (1941), by James Agee and Walker Evans, and (1955), originally a Museum of Modern Art exhibition curated by Edward Steichen.

You have one of the most expressive faces I've ever seen. I could sit and watch you for hours. Sometimes when you're not looking, I do. And I like all the pictures I take of you, except that in deference to social convention I don't publish the ones that are out of focus or which might make people think I was trying to make fun of you. Seeing you always make me light up. In a way, I myself become a camera. Your face doesn't talk about your genetic makeup, which is all a Barbie Doll's face can ever express. Instead, it tells the story of your past, and suggests a possible future. You have seen pain and disappointment, but you've held on to a fierce determination to do something important with your life. That to me, is the most beautiful human attribute of all.