I always liked the character Toby in Pretty Little Liars, but I didn't know much about the actor who portrayed him; Keegan Allen. It wasn't until I started following the PLL social media accounts that I found out that Allen is a keen photographer, and was releasing a book called life.love.beauty. A lot of fans were excited to see some pictures from behind the scenes - and so was I - but I was also intrigued by the idea of the book in general. I'm a photographer myself, with a special interests in personal photographs and self-portraiture.
There's more than photography in life.love.beauty, though - there are captions, poems, journal entries and pieces of autobiographical text where we get to know Allen. The book is just as much about the writing as the images, and combined they show the creativity, passion and gratitude of a young man who sees a lot of beauty in the world. This book has taught me that Allen is just as sensitive as the character he portrays on television.
I think the real reason this book has struck such a chord with me is because it's managed to get me excited about photography again. After my Master's Degree, my love for self-portraiture and documenting the world around me turned into exhaustion. But now I'm starting to enjoy picking up a camera again, who knows maybe it will start to show in this blog.
I think life.love.beauty would appeal to fans of Pretty Little Liars, as well as young creative people studying photography or even acting. I can't help but think I would have been drawn to this book even if I didn't watch Pretty Little Liars. Despite having portraits of fellow cast members and starstruck teenage fans, Allen seems like a refreshingly normal person who you'll feel like you know a lot better once you finish the book. His fans will love this because it's much more satisfying than just a ghostwritten celebrity autobiography. You can really sense that he poured his soul into this, and everything else he does.
Have you read this book? Let me know what you thought in the comments.