No Post-Processing, No Retouching! Can We Leave It Like This?

• Feature article •

We first met during a test shoot, and by the time we said goodbye my final thought was already: I will come back to him.

I have always been drawn to modelling, even if only as a hobby. Day after day I admired the brilliant work of professionals on Instagram. Every person has at least a dozen different faces and moods, but we only know a few of them. I decided I wanted to have as many of mine captured as possible.

I know that our emotional state and the atmosphere of a moment have an enormous influence on a photograph. That is why I wanted to entrust Norbi with something truly exceptional and unique.

What exactly?

I didn't know.

I only knew that when the right period came, I would feel it.

Months passed, and I lived my life as one of the most balanced women in the world — until life punched me hard in the stomach.

I had always known what to do and when to do it. My past had taught me that.

But now…

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Now I felt like somebody walking through Jasmine and Aladdin's desert who steps into sand that drags you downward, binds you in place and makes fear take control. You shovel the sand in front of you, hoping you might find something to hold onto — but there is nothing anywhere.

I sank helplessly.

And just when I had accepted my fate and its consequences, I suddenly felt as though time had stopped.

That was the emotional state in which I arrived at Norbi's and asked him to show me what he saw.

In barely two hours, without even noticing it, time began running backwards. I found myself standing again in the moment before I had stepped onto that all-consuming surface of sand.

He guided me back along the path brilliantly, capturing every face of mine he could see along the way.

I did not want him to retouch anything.

I wanted photographs in which I was simply myself, exactly as I existed in that moment and in that environment.

I wanted raw reality — including every imperfection in the image.

To my amazement, Norbi gave me all the photographs and said: these are yours. This is what you asked for.

I don't know another professional photographer who would have done that so easily. In most places, you do not even receive the raw files.

Even after going through them several times, I still really like the photographs.

Their small imperfections are exactly what make the series perfect for me.

As I write these lines, I am standing at this milestone. I can see which direction I should probably take next, yet I am still under the spell of that journey that seemed to reverse time.

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Perhaps it gave me a little hope too…

It would be so good to find my way out of this desert again.

Authentic portrait photography does more than create a flattering image: it reveals character, presence and personality.

Part of the BANHALMI ecosystem

For the professional context and practical side of portrait photography, visit the BANHALMI professional website. Related art series, books and exhibitions are preserved in the BANHALMI ART archive.