Bill Brandt who is a famous photographer i have found that is famous for taking nude distorted pictures. i really like his images because they show a different way of photographing the nude female body form. The reason i chose to research is because i want to photograph the female form and then distort it on photoshop to show how we never see the truth in the media in terms of what people really look like.
I particularly like his work because he distorts the body by just using his camera and a wide angle lens which is something i would like to experiment with. Mostly i like that his work is in black and white as alot of previous photographers i have looked at are colour and i prefer black and white photography.
I particularly like the use of the harsh and dark shadows as it further enhances the distortion of the images. From these photographs i want to use and experiment with distortion as a way of challenging the hegemonic norms of the female body and show how easy it is to distort a body.
above article: group of researchers produce a computer program that shows what celebrities looked like before the editing of the picture whether it be on a magazine front cover, an advert on tv, fashion shoot, or even spotted at an awards ceremony etc etc
Real Women-This is what we need to see more of-This is normal- not everyone should look the same-everyone is different!
also found a really interesting article that i think deals with the present arguements surrounding media influence on social construction and image of women
With photography, I like to create fiction out of reality. I try and do this by taking society's natural prejudice and giving this a twist."
Quote above is a quote from Martin Parr, although i am still experimenting with whether or not I want to be doing documentary or portraiture photography i think that this quote very much ties in with what I aim to do in my proposal.
One of the main things that is suggested on his website is that he like to challenge ways of thinking
Parr photographs things that were once familiar in a new way and make us question why we accept certain norms about society.
In this sense martin Parr is very much to do with my project. Putting theory in to practice with my pictures i may want to people to question why skinny figures, clear skin, lots of makeup are referred to as perfect?
Or why there is only one way or one look for being beautiful?
It is not possible to look good all the time- I have tried it and it really doesn’t work. I always feel and I’m sure others do feel under constant pressure to have to look good all the time- because ‘apparently’ like in the movies when we wake up we look fresh faced and beautiful-this is just not the case.
But when we see pictures of celebrities on the front of magazines or even just out shopping and with a full face of makeup and looking nothing but perfect-men and the rest of the world get this idea that women look like this all the time-but being normal and not having personal stylists and makeup artists- I’m afraid I do not have this luxury!
Last week i looked at adbusters and the idea that men products are sold in a sexual fetish kind of way-ad busters plays on this and does the opposite like the Calvin Klein advert. i also looked at the idea of the 'gaze' So this week i am continueing this and looking at how celebrities that we base our looks around are not always perfect-which is normal! But the media treat it as a huge thing or as a ‘shock’. Additionally this research will help me with ideas on how to challenge the way we should look.
The April issue of French Elle magazine did a special addition featuring European female celebrities posing with no makeup and all pictures were un photo shopped or retouched. The magazines head line was “Stars Sans Fards” meaning without makeup. Why does celebrities not wearing makeup have to be a special addition- its not possible for people to look good all the time yet the media give the impression that it is and then when they are ‘caught’ without any makeup its turned into an embarrassing moment or shock factor-although i would be lying if I said I’m always slightly happy to see it.
In terms of how this relates to my chosen topic-when i was younger makeup didn’t matter, but now i cant leave the house without looking in the mirror and checking my face and I know I’m not alone- whether its looking at magazines covers or these shock factor articles-girls seem to get this idea that if its a shock to see celebrities looking rough its a shock for everyone- makeup has become something we hide behind but so much so that it bring me back to the idea that we are all starting to look the same- the media have made us think that we should have no imperfections, but the fact is even celebrities do, when are they going to start using special additions as every addition? It brings me back to the idea of a journalist and the media being gatekeepers of truth-well then why not show us the truth?
Men’s choice of object is dominated by a fetish, or whether the product is advertised by women-sexual fetishism
‘the fetish is a substitute for the women’s (the mothers) penis that the little boy once believed in-for reasons familiar to us-does not want to give up’
Little boys are confused that their mother and other women do not have a penis
Sexual fetishism, or erotic fetishism, is the sexual arousal a person receives from a physical object, or from a specific situation. The object or situation of interest is called the fetish, the person a fetishist who has a fetish for that object/situation. Sexual fetishism may be regarded, e.g. in psychiatric medicine, as a disorder of sexual preference or as an enhancing element to a relationship causing a better sexual bond between the partners.
Today, psychodynamics has parted with the idea of proposing one explanation for all fetishes at the same time. Instead, it focuses on one form of fetishism at a time and the patients' individual problems. Over the past decades, various case studies have been published in which fetishism could successfully be linked to emotional problems. Some argue that a lack of parental love leads to a child projecting its affection to inanimate objects, others state in consent with Freud's model of psychosexual development that premature suppression of sexuality could lead to a child getting stuck in a transitory phase. One of Freud’s defence mechanisms, displacement, is the redirection of an impulse onto a substitute target. Someone who feels uncomfortable with their sexual desire for a real person may therefore substitute a fetish.
Fetishism- which is why so many products to do with women, also why the advertising companies-heavily influencing these fetishes
Example: Lynx advert- 'Angels will fall from heaven' appealing to men’s ego- if you spray this on you-all women will be attracted to you. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfeVEAZkJqM
