An Illustrated essay by Lynne Bools-Roberts
l/b-r
I L L U S T R A T E D
E S S A Y
LYNNE BOOLS – ROBERTS N0425907 FASH20031
C O N T E N T S INTRODUCTION
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INSPIRATION
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INTERVIEW
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IMAGE ANALYSIS
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EDITORIAL
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CONCLUSION
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REFERENCES
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APPENDIX
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LIST OF ILLUSTRAIONS
Fig. 2 Fig. 1
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I N T R O D U C T I O N
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What is beauty? The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as ‘a combination of qualities such as shape, colour, or form that pleases the aesthetic senses, especially the sight’ (Oxford University Press, 2013). We as a species have always been obsessed with the concept of beauty; a recent analysis of data from the Pittsburgh Youth Study found that even at young ages, 35% of 9-year-old and 38% of 10-year-old girls were already dissatisfied with their bodies (2010). Over time, much like fashion, the perception of beauty has evolved and transformed. Fig. 1 displays a painting from the Renaissance (1400’s-early 16th century). It depicts the epitome of what was believed to be beautiful in a woman; light coloured hair, pale skin and a full, voluptuous figure. There was a drastic change in the impression people had of beauty coming into the Victorian era – women were extremely body conscious and a miniscule waist was the ideal that a woman strived for, depicted in Fig.2. In the 1920’s however, quite the opposite ideal figure evolved – women wanted to achieve a ‘boyish’ figure and flapper girls cut their hair short as seen in Fig.3. Women then wanted to appear like Marilyn Monroe in the 50’s – curves were back in fashion along with short, curly hair as seen in Fig. 4. Today, women have more choice than ever before, with trends being influenced by all past decades, yet ‘the annual poll of 752 of the organization’s boardcertified facial plastic surgeons found that there was a 31% increase in requests for surgery as a result of social media photo sharing’ (AAFPRS, 2013), and the demand for plastic surgery being the highest it has ever been this decade. These shocking statistics prove that we as humans have never accepted our natural self as beautiful and regard beauty as something we need to change about ourselves to fit trends and ideals. Fig. 4
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I N S P I R A T I O N
Regarding this contextual information we wanted a concept which challenged perceptions of beauty, making the viewer question and confront their own feelings towards the question ‘what is beauty?’, in the hope that the images will inspire them to be accepting of their own natural beauty as well as the natural beauty of others (which comes in all types of shapes and forms). Jenny Saville particularly inspired the thought process in coming up with our concept, her ‘disturbingly massive nudes made her a sensation among Young British Artists’ (The Observer, 2012). Fig.5, which is oil on canvas, was displayed at the size 3.36 X 2.90 metres. The use of a large scale helps to reinforce and communicate
the message that we as a population feel uncomfortable confronted with a human body which is not the at the height of our idea of perfection. The viewer then has the realisation that they need to address these feelings to fully appreciate Saville’s work, we thought that this effect was very powerful and were keen to evoke the same emotions within the viewer. The aim will be to push past any grotesque feelings the viewer has towards raw graphic images and induce emotions such as admiration and acceptance. She plays around with the human body, making something potentially aesthetically unappealing into beautiful forms, shapes and colours. We wanted our concept to capture imperfection in beauty as well as making the viewer aware of their own reactions to diversity within beauty.
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Fig. 5
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The notion of using injuries for our concept came from thinking about what makes people uncomfortable with others’ appearance. Scars and burns particularly captured our imagination – each scar or burn is completely individual, no two are the same. This concept alone is beautiful, the thought that a scar can be someone’s identity – the scar is personal to the individual – it almost defines them as a person by telling their story, and this should be applauded rather than a burden to their appearance. We began to research artists and photographers who celebrated this beauty. One example is Doug Auld. He turned the concept of beauty on its head by painting a series of burn victims. With each painting comes a narrative on the individual’s story, for example in Fig. 7 ‘Shayla’ was burnt in a house fire when she was just five and as a result lost her fingers and ability to conceive, but despite this she is still a successful student. In Fig.8 Auld painted two sisters, Rebecca and Louise, who were burnt in a house fire who say that they now seek to find the true meaning of their lives and how they are ‘blessed to know that God is utilising our burns to enhance our lives with meaningful lessons’. The sisters were particularly inspiring as they look upon their burns as a gift from God, and seek to ‘inspire many with their unique beauty’ (Doug Auld, 2005). People can have very different perspectives of what is beauty and whether the sisters are beautiful. For example some missionaries may disapprove of any kind of scarification, contrasting it with an unmodified ‘natural body’ made in the image of God (‘Made in the image of God’ – Genesis). However, others could argue that we were born with our beauty from God, and anything we add aesthetically should not affect our beauty as it is within our nature rather than our appearance. Others also argue that our beauty is determined by the way we view ourselves –
how others look at you does not change the beauty of you as an individual. This is reinforced by Thích Nhất Hạnh (2011), who said ‘To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself’, and this is what inspired the concept our shoot – be confident of your own beauty and only then will others do the same. Similarly, Auld’s work was stimulated by the quotation by Wilhelm Von Humboldt who was a Prussian philosopher. He stated that ‘It is unbelievable how much strength the soul can impart to the body’ (Doug Auld, 2005). The meaning of this can of course be disputed but we interpreted it as if you viewed yourself in your conscious as beautiful, then you are. This philosophy is perfect for the photo shoot that we wanted to conduct; to use burn victims who are confident of their own image, who have been made mentally stronger by their scars. p.4
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Fig. 8
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Katherine Kiviat photographed burn victims in Pakistan. A particularly striking portrait was that of Saira Liaquat, Fig. 9. She is ‘holding an old photograph of herself before she was burned with acid by her husband’ (Katherine Kiviat, 2013). Most victims are between the ages of 14 - 25 years old. Motives vary, but are most frequently obsession, jealousy, suspected infidelity, and sexual non-cooperation. The face and genitalia are the areas most generally targeted, those guaranteeing complete disfiguration.
-Katherine Kiviat, 2013
It is clear that there are huge cultural differences in how beauty is regarded – in Pakistan disfiguring someone as a vendetta seems to be a common criminal offense and this disfiguration would almost certainly ruin the victim’s life. We chose a similar style of image for our photo shoot using a real life scar victim; we did this partly to show the contrast in culture between our image and Kiviat’s. This image if seen in Pakistan would perhaps be portrayed as a person who deserves the scars that they’ve been given, a mark of his mistakes, whereas in our photo shoot we are promoting the idea that the human body is beautiful, scars can be a part of a person’s identity and we want this to be recognised worldwide. This is because although there are cultural differences in views on scars and beauty, there are global similarities (especially in women) in the belief that image and appearance is how someone is judged; ‘We spend a lot of time as women trying to analyse and fix the things that aren’t quite right, and we should spend more time appreciating the things that we do like” (Dove Real Life Beauty Sketches, 2013).
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Fig. 9
I N T E R V I E W
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We wanted to fully understand the emotions and feelings our male model had towards his scars so that we could translate these feelings into a photo shoot. This was done by interviewing him in an ethical, consented way as the topic of conversation was sensitive (consent forms can be seen in the Appendix). The interview was also intended to accompany the series of shots in the editorial. WHAT WERE YOUR EMOTIONS WHEN YOU REALISED THAT YOU WERE GOING TO HAVE THOSE SCARS? ‘At first, as stupid as it sounds, it didn’t occur to me that surgery would lead to scars so I wasn’t too bothered, when I did realise this I was concerned about how they would look and if people would judge me for them. Would I just become all about the scars? Is that all people would see about me? Would they be something I would come to be ashamed of because it means I was not a complete person?’ DO YOU FEEL LIKE PEOPLE LOOK AT YOU DIFFERENTLY? ‘Initially I definitely did. I felt like people saw me as ‘fragile’, someone to be treated with care in case I broke again or something, whereas I was treated just like everyone else before. I as a person had become all about my injury and scars. I was given special treatment in school and could tell all the staff pitied me, which although it showed their concern and I should have been grateful, angered me because I just wanted to be like everyone else! Most new people I meet don’t believe me about how I got my scars; some people think I’m lying for attention! When they do believe me it’s like they either pity or admire me for what I have been through like it was a choice I made to have the surgery and consequently the scars, so I do believe people look at me differently.’ IF YOU COULD GET RID OF THEM NOW WOULD YOU? ‘Not now no, my scars are a part of who I am. If people don’t like them it’s their problem!’ HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE SCARS NOW? ‘Now I feel that the scars are a part of who I am, I feel they always give me a bit of perspective when I think things in my life are bad that they have been worse and I have got through it. Especially now they have died down a bit, I almost like them because they do make me different from other people and now that I’m older I realise that it isn’t a bad thing.’
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Fig. 14
I M A G E
A N A L Y S I S
Fig. 16
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The first shot we wanted to create nearly replicated Kiviat’s (Fig. 13). However, instead of our model holding an image of himself before his accident, we wanted him to hold an image of himself when he first had his accident so his scars were extreme and graphic. We did this because we wanted to show how his body had healed but also how he had mentally healed. We found out in the interview that his feelings towards his scars at first were very different to his feelings about them now. By his gaze being on the image and looking down as seen in Fig.10, he seems to be assessing his journey since his injuries. We hoped that it conveyed the narrative that he was in evaluation of himself in relation to the scars and that he’s showing the viewer how far he has come, in the hope it will inspire the viewer to feel admiration and appreciation of the beauty of his scars rather than having feelings of pity or shock. His gaze is an ‘object- orientated attention’ so is not a direct address, but as he is holding the photograph towards the camera lens it connotes that he is still aware that he is being watched. This helps to reinforce the message that our model is trying to teach the viewer his mentalities in the hope it will make the viewer evaluate their initial reaction to his appearance.
However we felt that a stronger, more striking image would be achieved with a direct gaze. A gaze of direct address represents a demand for the viewer (as the object of the look) to enter into a parasocial relationship with the depicted person with the type of relationship indicated by a facial expression or some other means. - (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996) This relationship established between our model and the viewer will help inspire the viewer to appreciate and commend our model. It also forces the viewer to confront his gaze. His gaze is confident and strong (Fig. 14) making it a more successful image than our first shot. We lit him directly from the front and chose the white back drop to maximise the focal point; being the model. We also chose to dress him all in black so the image was very clean and minimal for a greater impact.
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Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Next we decided we also wanted a burn victim photographed to accompany the image of the scars. This was because we sought after a series of shots; two male models confident of their appearance despite having a supposed flawed identity, who represent the beauty of imperfection and diversity within image. The burns were applied artificially using gelatine and body paint. We did this because we wanted to create a burn which was extremely visually stimulating. The image would have had a deeper meaning if we had the time to search for the perfect model and the message would have been stronger however we knew that because of practicality issues we would have to create false burns. We wanted to have two main shots of both male models which would both complement each other but also tell slightly different narratives. To begin with we shot our second model with the same white backdrop as seen in Fig. 15. This produced a very clean simple image. We thought black however would be more dramatic and emphasise the beauty of the scars and would also make it more graphic (inspired by Jenny Saville). In hindsight we should have recognised this sooner and switched backdrops swiftly but unfortunately we did it too near the end of our shoot - time management could have been handled better to get more shots in with the black backdrop. We also experimented with having a close crop of the body so the burns were extremely ‘in your face’, forcing the viewer to confront their emotions on them. We decided though a shot would be more effective if it was similar to Fig. 14 in terms of composition so that the pair would complement each other.
We then came up with Fig. 16. We decided we still wanted a cropped body so that the burns were extremely apparent. The black back drop looked extremely beautiful against the colour of the models burns and his skin and we hoped that this would trigger the feelings of admiration and acceptance of beauty which comes in a different form to our usual ideals. Through the use of the direct gaze it shows confidence in his beauty and his acceptance of himself as a beautiful human being. This should also influence the viewer into appreciating his beauty and begin to be accepting of their own natural beauty.
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Fig. 16
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E D I T O R I A L
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Our photo shoot had to be contextualised to a magazine. When we first came up with our concept we decided to choose Vice. This was because of the tone of voice in the magazine; it is the antithesis to the methods practised by mainstream news outlets. It is very graphic and ‘real’, it does not over glamorise its stories and photo shoots like other editorials such as Vogue. The monthly publication is also usually focused around a single theme. This would be perfect for our images as there are so many different stories and perspectives on the subject of confidence in inner beauty being projecting onto physical beauty that the issue could cover. As Vice has its content shifted from dealing with mostly independent arts and pop cultural matters to covering more serious topics, our images would also fit in with this tone – the obsession we have with physical appearance is a global problem which affects nearly all of us, especially the youth of today, and so this problem needs to be addressed. Also having researched the magazine articles were found such as ‘Dogs love eating human faces’. The magazine celebrates and promotes these graphic stories with raw images which really grab the attention of the reader and speak volumes and this is what we hoped we achieved with our images. Our photo shoot would also be able to communicate well with Vice’s readership. The have an intelligent, edgy reader who would really comprehend the message of the shoot and take these notions forward in the hope of also inspiring change.
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C O N C L U S I O N To conclude, this project was all about challenging people’s reaction of natural beauty, whether it is their own or the beauty of others. We achieved this through a graphic photo shoot inspired by Jenny Saville and the quotation ‘To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself’ (Thích Nhất Hạnh, 2011). With the confident gaze of our models, the images oozed the message that the individuals are content with themselves as beautiful human beings, meaning others should also have this outlook on them, and perhaps in time, themselves. The question the project proposed to us was ‘what is beauty’, and the answer we discovered was this; beauty is the inner confidence and feeling of being content an individual has with his or her soul, and with this they are a beautiful person - no matter what imperfections their appearance may bear.
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Fig. 22
R E F E R E N C E S AMERICAN ACADEMY OF FACIAL PLASTIC AND RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY, 2013. New Survey Finds Social Media is a Major Influence on Elective Surgery [Online]. Available at http://www.aafprs.org/media/stats_ polls/m_stats.html [Accessed 27 November 2013]
The Observer, 2012. Jenny Saville’s work – in pictures [Online]. Available at http://www.theguardian. com/artanddesign/gallery/2012/jun/10/jenny-saville-paintings-oxford-solo-show [Accessed 28 November]
Auld, Doug, 2005. State of Grace [Online]. Available Oxford University Press, 2013. The Oxford English at http://www.dougauld.com/state-of-grace/splash.php Dictionary. 2nd ed. 2013 OED Online [Online]. Avail[Accessed 28 November 2013] able at http://dictionary.oed.com/ [Accessed 28 November] Blackburn, Charlie (2013). [Interview] Dove Real Life Beauty Sketches (2013). [Advertisement]. Available at http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=litXW91UauE [Accessed 25 November 2013] Hạnh, Thích Nhất, 2011. Good Reads [Online]. Available at http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/350914to-be-beautiful-means-to-be-yourself-you-don-t-need [Accessed 20 November 2013] Kiviat, Katherine, 2013. Burn Victims in Pakistan [Online]. Available at http://www.katherinekiviat.com/#/ pakistan/burn-victims-in-pakistan/Saira10 [Accessed 25 November] Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1996. Forms of Gaze [Online]. Available at http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/ gaze/gaze02.html [Accessed 28 November] Liechty, J. M. (2010).Body image distortion and three types of weight loss behaviors among nonoverweight girls in the United States. Journal of Adolescent Health [Online]. Available at http://www.parentfurther. com/high-risk-behaviors/eating-disorders [Accessed 28 November]
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A P P E N D I X
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A P P E N D I X
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L I S T
O F
I L L U S T R A T I O N S
Fig. 1 Portrait of a Woman (painting) Palma Vecchio, online (2008) Available at: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/ archive/01132/arts-graphics-2008_1132332a.jpg [Accessed 28 November]
Fig. 11 Charlie’s side profile 1, November 2013 [own photograph] Fig. 12 Charlie’s side profile 2, November 2013 [own graph]
Fig. 2 Woman (photograph) Unknown, online (2009) Available at: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2009/08/11/2009640050.jpg [Accessed 28 November]
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Fig. 13 Charlie’s Evaluation, November 2013 [own photograph]
Fig. 3 Alice Joyce 1926 (photograph) Unknown, online (2013) Available at: the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division [Accessed 28 November] Fig. 4 Beauty (photograph) Unknown, online (2012) Available at: HTTP://WWW.FLICKR.COM/PHOTOS/30356381@ N02/3055639333/ [Accessed 28 November] Fig. 5 Passage (painting) Jenny Saville, online (2004) Available at: http://www.saatchigallery.com/aipe/imgs/saville/Passage.jpg [Accessed 28 November] Fig. 6 Flesh (painting) Jenny Saville, online (2012) Available at: http://pictify.com/103702/jenny-saville-flesh-orwellwasright39s-weblog [Accessed 28 November]
Fig. 14 Charlie’s Portrait, November 2013 [own photograph] Fig. 15 Michael’s Close-Up, November 2013 [own photograph] Fig.16 Michael’s Portrait, November 2013 [own photograph] Fig.17 Vice’s Logo (illustration) Vice, online (2012) Available at: http://oxfordstudent.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/ Vice_Logo.png [Accessed 28 November] Fig. 18 Cover (magazine cover) Vice, online (2011) Available at: http://www.mandmglobal.com/Libraries/News/vice_cover_large. sflb.ashx [Accessed 28 November] Fig. 19 10th Anniversary (magazine cover) Vice, online (2012) Available at: http://mechanicaldummy.com/wp/wp-content/ themes/starkers/scripts/timthumb.php?src=http://mechanicaldummy.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/v7n2-Cover. jpeg&w=580&zc=1 [Accessed 28 November]
Fig.7 Shayla (painting) Doug Auld, online (2004) Available at: http://www.dougauld.com/state-of-grace/shayla.php [Accessed 28 November] Fig. 8 Rebecca and Louis (painting) Doug Auld, online (2005) Available at: http://www.dougauld.com/state-of-grace/sisters.php [Accessed 28 November]
Fig. 20 Volume 1 Number 3 (magazine cover) Vice, online (2012) Available at: http://cdn.3oneseven.com/wp-content/ uploads/HLIC/November-Magazine-Cover-Vice-819x1024.jpg [Accessed 28 November]
Fig.9 Saira (photograph) Katherine Kiviat, online (2009) Available at: http://www.katherinekiviat.com/#/pakistan/burn-victims-in-pakistan/Saira10 [Accessed 28 November]
Fig. 21 Volume 1 Number 5 (magazine cover) Vice, online (2010) Available at: http://freudiankicks.com/mediearkiv/endret/687.jpg [Accessed 28 November]
Fig.10 Charlie’s portrait edit, November 2013 [own photograph]
Fig. 22 Michael, November 2013 [own photograph] p.24