Project Development

Project Development

I want to create a project of self-portraits, similar to those previously done by Cindy Sherman.

Cynthia "Cindy" Morris Sherman (born January 19, 1954) is an American photographer and film director, best known for her conceptual portraits. In 1995, she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Through a number of different series of works, Sherman has sought to raise challenging and important questions about the role and representation of women in society, the media and the nature of the creation of art. Her photographs include some of the most expensive photographs ever sold. Sherman works in series, typically photographing herself in a range of costumes. To create her photographs, Sherman shoots alone in her studio, assuming multiple roles as author, director, make-up artist, hairstylist, wardrobe mistress and, of course, model.

In this project I want to dig deeper into the idea of beauty through makeup. By this I mean that makeup is designed to enhance the features and natural beauty of the individual, yet some take it to the extreme of the more makeup I wear then the more beautiful people will think I am, when in fact it has the opposite effect.

Project Development

Also I want to look at another photographer; David Lachapelle. David LaChapelle is an artist and photographer known for combining a hyper-realistic aesthetic with social messages. The inspiration I get from David LaChapelle is his use of bold, powerful colours also this particular photograph (see below) is something I may look into when editing my photographs the idea of deformation of certain features. I want to take this project to the extreme and get into the whole idea of ‘beauty gone wrong’. These photographs will help get across the message of how we as a society are obsessed with this ideological idea of beauty and will show how some people will stop at nothing to look beautiful.

Here are a few more examples of his work;

Project Development

After taking a few test shots in the studio with my idea firmly set in mind, I realised that this wasn’t the exact way that I wanted my project to go. Therefore I took the shots and headed straight back to the drawing board. Beauty was my main focus for this project therefore I needed to find a way of incorporating that into my photos, when I saw Rihannas’ new cover for her unapologetic album.

I took the inspiration from the creative director Mario Hugo, and decided that I wanted to take similar features from this cover and use them within my own piece in order to try and tell a story through images and words. I will do so by putting text over my images using Photoshop. My aim now with this project is to get across the a message that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and is not what the huge corporate companies tell us beauty is and to show how the pressure of looking good does affect people and does it can just consume their lives.