This hand-colourised project involved composing diptychs exploring the nature of artifice within fashion photography as well as how it’s codified in contemporary culture.
Models of all ages and sizes posed with the entirety of their wardrobe and then stripped of all trinkets and embellishments to pose nude, juxtaposing side by side the denial we perpetually feed ourselves. Negotiating our appearance in relation to others, in an attempt to present an acceptable, fashionable and interesting individual to the rest of the world through dress. Notions of a personal sense of style, the social cues and signifiers that are derived from clothing and appearance and the cultural capital they hold are provocatively examined with the distinctive images.
We strive to be re-affirmed by others, and accept the gratuitously abundant advertising and imagery presented to us that we can ‘define ourselves’ and our ‘individuality’ through dress and appearance.
What does this really suppose and how does this relate to how we comprehend ourselves as individuals and the value we place on appearance and trendiness.
The project was aptly titled ‘The Weight of Appearance’.