BeautyMe Notes - a newsletter.
I can’t actually believe that I started my BeautyMe Notes newsletter back in January. Like, what was I thinking at that time? And how have I managed to produce 20 newsletters in that time? (#20 is out tomorrow FYI).
Still, for some reason, the newsletter is something that I love to do. It goes out at 12pm (BST) every Thursday and I spend several days after the release thinking about what to put in the next one. What a newsletter does is, a) it allows you to just be you - write about anything you like and b) it allows you to get feedback on what you’re sharing in a different way to say, Instagram or YouTube.
Although I write about, photograph and talk about beauty, the newsletter isn’t really about beauty. Instead it’s where I share my real thoughts, fears, aspirations and muses. I realised that, as I have a blog, I should probably let my readers know that I also have a newsletter. So, this post is a short excerpt from what’s to come in this week’s newsletter. In it I share why music, film and TV director Melina Matsoukas is this week’s Minute Muse.
Melina Matsoukas is this week’s Minute Muse. Image via Instagram/@msmelina
This week’s Minute Muse is Melina Matsoukas, an American director of music videos for the likes of Lady Gaga, Kylie Minogue, Solange and Beyonce, TV shows that include the hit Insecure and movies such as 2019’s Queen & Slim. Melina is inspiring on so many levels but it was her visual style that first won me over. She has a very specific way of communicating visually and it’s already clear how she has gone on to influence other artists. Melina does not simply create imagery that satisfies the viewer for three minutes; she’s always out to provoke a reaction - I call it art over content, which is a subject I’m researching at the moment.
It’s this colourful and striking style that won her two Grammys and several MTV Video Music Awards for Rihanna’s We Found Love and Beyonce’s iconic Formation video. It’s as if Melina absorbs multiple cultures, ideas and iconography and creates her own version of the world, packed with retro references. That’s what had me so excited for her first movie, Queen & Slim - a film that blew me away and punched me in the gut, because Melina did not give it a Hollywood ending. I’m planning on watching it again on the projector, because the cinematography and colour grading are so beautiful; it’s the kind of film that you have to watch again, even though you know it’s going to hurt all over again…
Read the rest by signing up for my BeautyMe Notes newsletter, for free, here: https://beautymenotes.substack.com. Let me know what you think and do share it with someone who might enjoy it.
