Photographic Shoot 2

“Since femininity is associated with matter, the symbol of femininity is the female body. In contemporary culture, the body, especially the female one, is regarded as an object that can be shaped and modelled to match the promoted beauty standards” (Damean, 90).  After Reading “Media and Gender: Constructing feminine identities in a postmodern culture’ by Diana Damean it made me realise how the media portray certain beauty standards for women, showing them that they can change their appearance to achieve this level of beauty.  However images of women portrayed in the media can influence women to feel suffocated by the representation of these beautiful idealised women. The “Media sets standards for the shape and the dimensions of the “beautiful” body, according to a series of binary oppositions” (Damean 91).  It can be said that the media defines and shows women what ‘beauty’ is supposed to looks like, through women’s appearances in magazines, television, etcetera.  This may leave some women feeling the pressure to conform to these standards; and feeling smothered by the media’s representation of ‘beauty’.  This influenced me for my next photographic shoot, where the images smother her face, losing her identity, shown through the magazine cuttings covering her face.

For this photographic shoot I stuck the images on the girls face and then got two people to peel the images off. I reversed the images so that it looks as though they are placing the photographs on her face. I did this as I wanted to show that she was not making the decision but was being influenced by other people and the media. I then used video software to create the moving image. A tripod was essential for this photographic shoot so that the camera stayed in a stable position throughout the process.