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EAUTY SECRET
LING ZHANG N0469100
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n a competitive social environment an understanding of beauty has cross cultural aspects; talking
about beauty, it is not difficult to think about or have aesthetic feeling, which is a subjective attitude towards the aesthetic object. Beauty is a kind of cultural consensus development, which is not static but vigorous dynamic and powerful in changing perceptions. Specifically, the consensus of beauty is constantly changing with the development of human practice, culture and ideological evolution. When people think about what beauty is, they all have their own ideas according to various understanding, a number of people may think beauty is something that is pleasing to look at, others may regard beauty as normal or even unusual things. The difference between these understandings of what beauty is shows the form of beauty. In this paper, we focus on a series of photos from a photographic shoot, an understanding of beauty is going to be stated and how beauty was visualized will be analyzed.
T
he inspiration of the photo shoot has come from the work of several
artists. One of them Urs Fischer a contemporary artist from Switzerland, of whom Dinnage posted that; “Fischer’s work is characterized by an unending diversity of materials, strategies, concepts, and images� (Dinnage, 2013, online). Fischer is convinced that everything has its own uniqueness and existence, he placed independent components together, making combinations of ordinary items as part of artwork to demonstrate the beauty of objects with these objects having a new definition by being in combination with each other. Fischer used ordinary items such as fruits, vegetables, glasses and mirrors, an example of which can be seen in figure 1.
Figure 1
Rene Magritte Another demonstration of the beauty of objects comes from the works of Rene Magritte, a surrealistic artist from Belgium has attracted Figure 2 much public attention. Magritte drew many works with intense color in combination with unusual objects, such as “Son of man” (figure 2) and “Man In A Bowler Hat” (figure 3) in 1964.
Figure 3
The crucial feature of both Fischer and Magritte is the faces of the objects were hidden by ordinary props, such as green pepper, apple and bird, asking the people appreciating this art to see an internal identity. Therefore, a type of surrealist beauty emerges from these works by combining one object with another. An blog called IGNANT(2013) shared a work “Grace Series”(figure 4 and figure 5 ) from an California-born artist Jonni Cheatwood, it suggests that ”he has taken the idea of a self-portrait and created a collaboration through mixed media that is to be explained as an exploration of the notions pertaining to chance and abstraction; all the while,
Figure 4
Figure 5
focusing on the desire to remain faceless as the paint resolves, exposes and forms. To Jonni this autonomous series is a plea for the inner beauty in humanity to come forth from within, outward, in an attempt to create more of a beautiful world that we live in.” (IGNANT, 2013, online)
Figure 6
Multiple photos (figure 6) that cover or hide faces were to become significant works. Inspired by these artists and photos, these suggest or try to express that beauty is not about external beauty, such as the beauty of a face but more about internal expression, for example, Jaleel mentioned something interesting behind “Son Of Man” from Magritte’s work: “The apple and the title “Son Of Man” seem to be alluding to the story in genesis where Satan temps Adam and Eve to taste the apple. This may be a red herring just to throw critics off the track.” (Jaleel, 2011, online) Jaleel believes that, “sometimes, our seeing blinds us”, (Jaleel, 2011,online) the reason is we only notice what is in front of us and not what is behind, the message here is people can only sense the surface of things in most of situations; it also can be regarded as the limitations of senses. Hence, the group of photo shoots aim to break this limitation and fill this gap about the understanding of beauty by asking those appreciating the photos to consider what is the beauty behind the face.
The props used for the photo shoot are onion, pomegranate, (figure 7 and figure 8) shell and stones, which are natural things in daily life. However, these items are special in a certain sense because the external and inner views of the objects are very different. For instance, an onion looks mellow and smooth outside with a purple skin, but obvious lines and patterns appear inside the onion when cutting it open. Pomegranate as another example has an ordinary pink surface but with abundant delicious flesh inside. Obviously, it is important to explore inner beauty instead of focusing on the surface.
Figure 7
These props are integrated with models in order to show beauty diversity similar to the style of Fischer and Magritte. In ancient Hebrew tradition the pomegranate seed is the sign of resuscitation while in ancient China, pomegranate implies reunion and harmony. Shell and stones can be interpreted as the beauty of nature and purity.
Figure 8
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The photo shoot attempts to illustrate inner beauty by showing less of none of the model’s face and putting ordinary props on the model’s face or shoulder. The onion (figure 9) for example, surround by white Figure 10 background in combination with a naturalistic model, the onion is highlighted clearly. In figure 10 a female model with short black hair that has light blue ends lays on a white floor, the model wore a black top, covered by a white shell on half of the face. The white shell became outstanding in a minimalist environment matching with the models’ white skin, characteristics of pure heart is demonstrated.
Figure 9
ID
magazine can always grab people’s
attention compared to other magazines in the book store, the reason is the cover is always cheerful to look at and has extraordinary photographic editorials. The style of arranging cover is unique, simple and modern are the important features of ID magazine. Figure 11 shows a previous example of ID magazine featuring Leona Lewis. Snell (2012) analyzed that the cover in particular is simple with just one close up image of the artists face; the cover also uses a natural and neutral color palette. The most significant point is there are very few cover lines on this publication further emphasizing the photograph and making the focus stand out. Figure 11
The photo shoot seems to be suitable and comparable with works completed in ID magazine. It is noticed that the interview within ID magazine has become a typical method to demonstrate a subject, for example figure 12, by asking artists questions in order to make the focal point stand out. During this photo shoot, models were invited to do an interview with questions like “what is beauty” or, “what makes you beautiful”. Finally, answers from the models were collected and Figure 12
integrated with photos, like figure 13 and figure 14. ID magazine stands for identity, while the purpose of this photo shoot project is showing someone’s identity, that is to say, one’s inner characteristics, specialty and the perception of life. For example, the model in figure 15 thought beauty is natural without excessive decoration, this is demonstrated with the stones on this models’ shoulder, stones are from nature, and natural beauty is an allpervading presence. So that, stones took the place of inner thoughts, hence this photo shows the beauty of thought from this individual model.
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Figure 15
Figure 14
Figure 13
Inner beauty can be more important than outer beauty, the beauty of someone is not a facial mole, and true beauty is reflected in one’s soul. Gibran (2009.online) said “beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.” (Gibran, 2009, online) Especially, for women, inner beauty is the major capital for advancement. The beauty of appearance will diminish as a person gets older; however the inner beauty is eternal. A famous book including the character Jane Eyre for example, although she did not have a charming appearance, she was poor and humble, she was brave and believed firmly that everyone’s soul is equal. These can be considered the thoughts of a beautiful personality. With changes in culture, and opinions such the U.S. of the mid 1900’s when people regarded some ethnic groups as second class citizens without beauty, moving into the 2000’s opinions in the U.S. had changed to one of more equality, where beauty can be seen across all ethnicities. Contemporary society is gradually filling the gap of racial differences. People deem and treat beauty in
different ways, many models are black women, for example a film called “Desert Flower” (figure 16), tells how a black women became an outstanding famous model. Feminism has become a popular topic, compared to 40 or 50 years ago, when men were perhaps considered more senior in the family or society than women, a beautiful woman should stay at home to do housework or look after children. Opinions change over time and currently, individual and independent women can be considered more attractive and beautiful. The spirit in a person’s heart is more important, impacting the path of life. Similarly, when a person obtains knowledge, his or her opinions will change along with that persons’ appearance, which could be better as well.
Figure16
A survey was completed by asking 10 people about two images by email, shown in figure 17. One is from the photo shoot with a hidden face and another is a famous image of Kate Moss with a clear face. The results of the survey suggests most people want to know the story behind the photo from the photo shoot, for example the inner beauty behind the photo whilst the for the Kate Moss photo most people consider the look of the photo to be the most beautiful aspect and have not given so much thought about the story behind the photo or the personality of the person within it.
Figure 17
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Considering the aim of photo shoot to show the inner beauty of the subject including their personal identity; removal of the subjects face, as a focal point has successfully allowed persons appreciating the photo to consider what is behind the face and focus on the beautiful identity of the subject which is enhanced by the published interview. The photo shoot considered the works of significant artists like Fischer and Magritte but has its differences in that the objects of the photo are truly natural without imaginative adjustment. The works really ask the viewer to consider the story behind the subject.
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REFERENCES Dinnage,J (2013). Urs Fisher exhibition at MOCA Grand Avenue Los Angeles till 19th Aug. Retrieved from http://condignart.com/2013/08/07/urs-fisher-exhibition-at-moca-grand-avenue-los-angeles-till-19th-aug/ Jaleel, A (2011). Painting Analysis “The Son of Man” René Magritte. Asad123's Blog, , . Retrieved from http://asad123.com/2011/11/30/painting-analysis-the-son-of-man-rene-magritte/ Snell,P (2012). i-D Magazine Cover Analysis. Polly's Media Blog,. Retrieved from http://pollysnellmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/i-d-magazine-cover-analysis.html Gibran,K (2009). “Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart”Kahlil Gibran. Retrieved from: http://poietes.wordpress.com/2009/02/04/beauty-is-not-in-the-face-beauty-is-a-light-in-the-heart-kahlilgibran/ IGNANT, 2013 : online
ILLUSTRATION cover figure: own image Figure 1: http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a5/60/72/a56072d467e060e2a49532422372db4a.jpg Figure 2: http://uploads2.wikipaintings.org/images/rene-magritte/son-of-man-1964(1).jpg fIgure 3: http://uploads2.wikipaintings.org/images/rene-magritte/man-in-a-bowler-hat-1964(1).jpg figure 4: http://www.ignant.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/cheatwood07.jpeg figure 5:http://www.ignant.de/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/cheatwood01.jpeg figure 6: own image figure 7: own image figure 8: own image figure 9: own image figure 10: own image figure 11: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Hv82NMueL7w/Tx0lIOPCrLI/AAAAAAAAABI/4d8JIGtugZ0/s1600/Untitled.png
figure 12: http://www.carhartt-wip.dk/files/ID_edwinfaeh_1(1).jpg f igure 13: own image figure 14: own image figure 15: own image figure 16: http://outnow.ch/Media/Movies/Bilder/2009/DesertFlower/set.p/02.jpg figure 17: own image
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