Body Confidence
By: Chelsea Ray
Introduction The overall point of "Body Confidence" is the idea that a woman's beauty comes in all ages, colors, shapes, and sizes. In the article, "SelfImage: Personal is Political", author Angela Kelly states that " women tend to model their own image on what is socially acceptable, generally a distorted male concept of femininity" (Kelly, pg. 413). A woman does not have to be a size two, tall, Caucasian, have blonde hair and blue eyes, and/or be 21 years of age in order to be considered beautiful. Every women/girl is beautiful in their own unique way without it having to be sexual. The media makes women believe that if they don't have the "ideal" features then they are not attractive. However, true beauty is all about the confidence that you have about yourself. All of the subjects used in order to help me make my point are images of women. For example, I am a plus size women, I consider myself as being a beautiful women and am very confident even though I do not have the stereotypical "model" body. So, I could incorporate a picture of myself on my photo essay to represent an African American, 22 year old plus size woman. I will also incorporate women/girls that might be that size 2, women of all races and ages including a 6 year older and a woman who is over the age of 55. All of these women are beautiful and will demonstrate them being confident with their self regardless of age. shape, color, and size. According to John Berger in the article, "Understanding a Photograph", “A photograph is a result of the photographer’s decision that it is worth recording that this particular event or this particular object has been seen” (page 292). The images that I will be
taken will definitely enhance your understanding of my topic. These picture will only back up my views on Body Confidence.
Rhetoric & Aesthetic All of the photos in my photo essay were taken with my Samsung Galaxy SIII.I chose to use my Galaxy SIII cell phone because it was more convenient for me since I do not personally own a camera; but more importantly, I chose to use my cellphone because most photos that women take or are taken of them come from a cell phone. One of the pictures that I included in my photo essay was one of my friends taking a full body selfie in the mirror which is done all the time. So, I thought that doing the same with the pictures (taking photos with the cell phone and showing a selfie) for my project will make it a lot more relatable to viewers.The overall feel of the images will be the same for each picture. I decided that I wanted to display all of my pictures in black and white.This is because my whole point of this essay is that color,age, shape, and size does not define beauty.Black and white shows no color. Therefore, the person will only be judged by simply their looks and not color. I think this is important in order to get the point of the photo essay across. I also used the blurry and darkened effect on the sides of the picture so that there is a big emphasis on the women in the pictures and viewers don't get distracted by looking at what is in the background. For example, the seventh picture shows a baby with a headband on its head. You can see that it looks as if there is a darkened, blur frame around the perimeter of the picture. When I look at the picture, my eyes immediately go to the baby girl and nothing else. This is the exact effect that I wanted. The people in the photo are the stars of the image; not any of the background distractions. To get these effects, I had to transfer all of the pictures that were on my phone onto the computer. I then used Photoshop. Photoshop
was the easiest way for me to make the images black and white as well as making the sides of the pictures blurry and darkened. Photoshop will be the icing on the cake to conveying the point of my photo essay. Another thing that I purposely did when taking the photos was making sure that all of the women in each photo were centered. According to Kelly, she writes “selfportrait is that the artist/photographer makes an image purporting to reveal the ‘inner’ character of the sitter as opposed to a likeness,” she continues , “... the position of the ‘selfexpressive individual artist’ is an ironic one at critically examining a concept of self in a wider social context is treated as self indulgence” (411). I wanted to have the women centered because it made it seem as if the women were not trying to hide anything about themselves. Part of the idea of Body Confidence is being comfortable with who you are. If the women were off to the side it would give off a completely different message.For example, the second picture of my photo essay is a picture of my sister. She can be seen in the center of the picture posing. Because she is in the center, it seems like she wants to be in the spotlight.This should be seen throughout my photo essay. Back to the second picture of the photo essay, my little sister is shown posing with a bright smile and both of her hands on her hips. I think this is an interesting picture of body confidence. Many people always tell her that she is so cute and she only knows it because she hears it so frequently. However, she is very much unaware that she counterfeits society’s idea of the perfect body.Quite Frankly, most people do not realize this. If society did not have these views, my
photo essay would not have the same significance. There would be no point to the essay. The essay would be nothing more than just photo album of my friends and family.
Photo Analysis The photo shown to the left may look like just any old picture of a group of friends taking a picture together; However, it is so much more than that.I took this picture during game night at my friends house.When I took the picture, I did not tell my friends what the picture was for. I wanted the picture to be as natural as possible. I knew that if I told them that the picture was for my project about Body Confidence that they would purposely pose or do something to try to convey Body Confidence which was not the point of the project. However, after I took the picture, I did let them know that I would be using it for my assignment. This picture shows four girls smiling and posing. All of the girls in the picture are all different sizes, colors, ages, and shapes.This is very significant because society makes us believe that a woman has to fulfill all of the body “requirements” in order to be considered beautiful.The “ideal requirements” include being a size two, tall, Caucasian, have blonde hair and blue eyes,
and/or be 21 years of age in order to be considered beautiful. However, in today’s world, a very few women actually fulfill all of these “requirements”. This picture proves society claim wrong. It is an example of how you do not have to be any of those “requirements” in order to have confidence in yourself. I wanted the picture to look as natural as possible. In the article, Photography , Sontag states, “Photographs, which fiddle with the scale of the world, themselves get reduced, blown up, cropped, retouched, doctored, trickled out” (pg.2). The only effect that I did put on the picture was the black and white effect. This effect allowed viewers to view the women in this picture for who they are rather than for color. The girls are in the center of the picture. I tried to use the frame composition in order to get them in the center. I wanted an equal amount of background space after the end of the girl in the lines. Making the girls center makes it seem as if the girls are not trying to hide anything about themselves. If I would of taken the picture so that the girls were off to the side, it would look as if they didn’t want to be seen. That would give the wrong message. When a person has body confidence, they do not care being in the spotlight. This picture allows the girls to have that spotlight.
Works Cited Sontag, Susan. Photography . The New York Review of Books.18 Oct 1973. Kelly, Angela. Self Image: Personal is political . Camera Work. 12 Jan 1979. Berger, John. Understanding a Photograph . 1974. .