Interviewed for NBC's Rock Center, photographer Rick Guidotti said: "It's not about saying, "Compare Claudia Schiffer or Cindy Crawford to this girl. It's about-- it's about reinterpreting beauty. It's about having an opportunity to see beyond what you're told and what we're forced to believe that that's beauty."
Guidotti's life has been all about beauty and the power of images. He spent years as a fashion photographer in Milan, Paris, and with a studio in New York, always shooting what fashion editors decreed to be beauty.
Then, fifteen years ago, when he considered photographing a woman with a disability, he was shocked at images in medical textbooks he consulted. Where, he asked, is the humanity?
"It's terrifying," Guidotti said, "There's other ways to present this. I've spoken to so many genetic counselors who have a family in front of them and say 'Ok, this is what your daughter is going to have. Read this.' And they cover up the photograph because it will freak the family right out.. There's gotta be something else we can do. There's gotta be another way to present that information to that family."
You can see more of Guidotti's pictures at the Positive Exposure web site.