Robert Hammersteil Photography

I came across these images in “The Photo Book,” where it explaines Robert Hammerstiel’s inspiration behind his photographs:

“Doll’s outfits packaged in transparent plastic are part of everyday commercial reality. They introduce children to adult’s patterns of consumption. Hammerstiel’s tactic is to photograph and reproduce such miniatures on a scale to large enough to make them objects for thought. His strategy in general is to show how what we think of as reality is produced and to demonstrate that there is little which is natural about it – hence his interest in the presentation of goods, as well as in the goods themselves. In the Made it up series, to which this photograph belongs, he includes portraits of dolls variously made up, as well as studies of packaged outfits.” (Phaidon, 1997, p.194)

These photographs interested me in the way in which the minature images of clothes are perfectly laid out.  It made me think of how chlidren grow up looking at images of ‘perfect’ women at such a young age and can be influenced but what they see in magazines and television. The photograph of the doll emphasises how the media portray women as idealised, like Barbie who is described as the ‘perfect’ women which I discussed in my blog last term. The way in which these clothes and doll are not ‘real,’ made me think of how the media portrays images of women who are unrealistic to others (unachievable beauty), but push women to believe we may need to change and alter our appearance to become more ‘beautiful.’