Women VS Social Norms
PHOTOGRAPHY / INSTALLATION
This was a photography project based around women and how society has put certain pressures on them. I wanted each of the photos to represent a distinct moment in time that caused for reflection, therefore each of them are taken with the model looking at themself in a mirror. These photos range from the need to cover up with makeup and hiding behind social media fantasies to dieting and constantly looking back.
The first image, to the right, lays out the meaning of the project, showing a female looking at herself in the mirror. However, the mirror was fogged over, representing the covers and cloaks that are put on during the day. While she has wiped away a part of the covering, you are still unable to see the female clearly. Women are constantly changing who they are and what they look like to be beautiful, attractive, smart, etc. changing the beauty they truly have until there is not the true person left.
To the left is the next image, which gives meaning to the coverings that females add to themselves. Makeup, while meaning to enhance particular features and bring out parts of the face, has turned into a mask that women feel the need to wear. Society has shown that this is the way that females feel and truly are beautiful, instead of simply in their own skin.
The next photo, to the right, shows another covering; social media. Putting up a front and showing only the positive parts of a life to the social world allows women to hide. This is a constant loop of seeing others out and feeling good, which leads to the viewer feeling down because they "aren't doing anything with their life." But then that viewer posts something that, most likely, is not true to what they are truly feeling, but follows the format of social media: positivity not reality. Filters and after effects cover things that females do not want to show because they are "ugly" not naturally beautiful.
The photo on the left pertains to the cover of food that women hide from. Looking at models on a runway or in a magazine show the hour-glass shape with curves clearly defined. These images cause women to feel ashamed because they are not that shape, so they aren't beautiful. This causes many women to begin to starve themselves so that they can lose weight and gain that figure.
Finally, the last photo, on the right, shows a female in her car ready to face the day. She has completely covered herself in the process of being beautiful instead of loving who she is. The car is the last standing wall between her and the outside world, where she has to put on a smile and pretend that she isn't hurting, covered in layers of makeup, starving from lack of food, and overall lonely and depressed.
