Izabella Damavlys Photography and Dolce & Gabbana Advert

After what Jim Steyer said in ‘Miss Representation’ I thought of looking up violent, sexualized and demining images of women.

I found a photographer called Izabella Demavlys who was a fashion photographer but now focuses on documentary work. These photographs are from her latest series ‘Without a Face’ which “illustrate a deeper definition of beauty, I photograph women whose pictorial beauty radiates from their accomplishment, character and personal struggles” (quoted in Schmelzer, 2010). These are portraits of Pakistani women who have been attacked by men with kerosene oil or battery acid. The portraits depict a different kind of beauty that normal portraits of women may not show, which I think portrays a strong message of what ‘beauty’ really is.

After reading “Photography: A Critical Introduction” Michelle Henning’s section ‘Objects of desire’ stood out to me. This is because it describes how: “Advertising and publicity images as well as erotica were criticised for eroticising the female body in a way in which turned women into more objects for a male gaze, a process usually termed objectification…We need to consider not only how photographs present women’s bodies for a male viewer but also how this process spills over into everyday life and into how men view actual women, and how women view themselves” (Henning, 1997, p.226). This made me think of how adverts show women not only to be gazed at by men, but how the women looking idealised and almost ‘perfect’ for the male gaze. Therefore leaving some women feeling suffocated, not only by the pressure to look beautiful for themselves but also for men. In order to achieve the high standard of beauty that is put forward in front of women through the media, such as magazines, it may leave some women feeling the need to alter their appearance. After reading this I decided to try and find an advert that was criticised for eroticising the female body.

Violent images of women being sexualized has also been a problem within the media. When researching adverts of women, Dolce & Gabbana frequently was being criticized for the way they have depicted women in their adverts and have been under scrutiny over many adverts. Like what Jim Steyer said how people are trying to do more and more shocking images to get attention. For example the Dolce & Gabbana adverts below were banned in several countries around the world for glorifying rape as it was labeled as degrading to women.