FADING FIRE
MIRROR MIRROR... What is perfection after all? Tyrone Lebon is a London based photographer and filmmaker whose work is as limitless as his acidic tasting light leaks which he produces with utter ease. Lebon inspires with his ability to get inside modern minds and turn this show reel of chaos into a single image or film. Tyrone Lebon explores the issues surrounding body image with rhetorical yet thought provoking questions like ‘How does it feel to be a woman? – do you feel like your body gives you power?’ His London influences show diversity within body shape and gender, showing the person behind the camera for who they truly are. Comparing ourselves to other people can be healthy in an admirable way, in one respect. However, being unique is a privilege everyone is given, and should be embraced as a human luxury rather than a deficiency. The media provides no escape with regard to body image for people going about their daily business. Whether its hearing ‘All about that bass’ on the radio mocking thin girls, or a flawless L’Oreal billboard, making us want to clear any form of carb from our fridges immediately.
What we see is not always reality, and we must remember that A-list bank accounts buy good personal trainers and Photo-shop experts. Recent headlines have shamed celebrities like Beyoncé and Jennifer Lawrence, specifically for heavily editing their photos when featured on magazine covers or in social media posts. Planet Instagram seems like a desirable, flawless place of filtered wonder and hashtags coming from every angle, but what and where is reality? We are so bombarded with beauty products and online popups telling us where to buy diet pills, what about the celebrities who cut out the tedious route to perfection and take a shortcut down surgery lane? Daily Mail online reported on Julia Roberts being happy with her body without desire for enhancement. “By Hollywood standards, I guess I’ve already taken a big risk in not having had a facelift, but I’ve told Lancome that I want to be an ageing model.” >
Photographer Ben Hughes works cinematically with a charming cohesion of landscape and humans. His views on body image in the fashion industry are considerate and respectful towards diversity. ‘Place of Identity’ is a project with a powerful concept linking our environments with our personalities. ‘I gave the models the freedom to choose their own location, something that was important to them. I also asked them to dress as they would in everyday life, I wanted to capture their identity.’ ‘We are constantly chasing ‘Utopia’ the idea of perfection, whether it be the perfect house, the perfect partner and even the perfect body.’ ‘Body image in the media is highly edited, retouched and false, this can have a negative effect on us as the viewer or even the customer, as we start to question ‘why don’t we look like that?’
A realistic aesthetic is communicated through Ben Hughes work and based on his own experiences and inspirations. His struggle to find his own path and identity post university has resulted in an honest collection of photography projects. ‘My images always touch ground on an issue/ emotion.’ Every generation has its own body image leaders and one of the key issues that will always be disputed, is that no one is a good or bad leader. Personal image is what makes someone unique. Everyone is handed a blank canvas in the form of a body, where opinion and inspiration develops a person into a forever changing masterpiece called individuality. Using materialistic things as self-expression is perfectly okay as long as one’s true personality isn’t muted.