Project Rationale

Elizabeth Chandler

BA (HONS) Photography - level 4

Photoskills B - Cyborg assignment (The real body shop)

Project Rationale

Upon completion of the 6 week Photoskills B assignment I wish to reflect upon my work, evaluating my progress, development of ideas and the success of my final piece.

The work I have produced for this assignment is titled “The real body shop”.

It is an A3 digital composite produced using Adobe Photoshop and multiple (9+) high quality stock images found on the internet. 

The work is a dystopian reflection of the cyborg, which simply means the merging of the body and technology. It illustrates a negative opinion of anatomy in a culture where body parts are increasingly seen as commodities. It challenges the culture of cosmetic surgery and reflects the impact of the media on women's appearances. The piece is aimed towards a gallery audience as a statement about the influence of modern society on women and their views regarding their physical appearance as well as the ability to selectively enhance and transform ones external aesthetic. 

I have referred to many sources to gather information that informs this assignment, from make-up adverts, the sex doll industry, advertising and pornography. In addition i have looked at many photographers work and photoshop creations to inspire the visual construction of my work. 

My final image communicates the concepts surrounding the culture of thinness and the ability to transform ones body via cosmetic surgery and other such procedures in order to enhance, alter and/or completely reconstruct specific parts with as much ease as purchasing a new pair of jeans.

Intertwined with this, there are elements which suggest a protest against the female body as a sexual object. 

Both the porn industry and advertising have stimulated many of my ideas; Both have contributed to the social expectations of female bodies. They are the puppet masters governing women's actions to constantly strive to better their physical appearance and achieve conventional beauty which is defined by society. 

Magazines encourage women to exert themselves to achieving levels of beauty which are, on the most part unattainable. 

Through research i discovered that women’s magazines have ten and half more adverts and articles promoting weight loss than men’s do, and over three-quarters of the covers of women’s magazines include at least one message about how to change the female bodily appearance. 

After looking at such magazines and studying the articles I Found very often the weight-loss/ beautification programs are followed by surveys and reports which inform women of things that men ‘look for in women’, or advice on ‘finding your true love’.

The whole idea stemmed from a trend i noticed on twitter.

A twitter trend is automatically generated when a topic is of particular interest at that time. The trend #Toohotinhere involved members uploading pictures of themselves using a sunbed.

Instantly it made me think of the assignment as it related to technology and the way in which humans depend on it.

I started looking at expectations of appearances and what made people want to look a certain way and why.

I found that desirable physical appearance varied according to location and changed depending on social groups.

This research lead me into looking specifically at women and the way in which they are impacted by social stereotypes and the media.

The development of new technologies such as the internet and smart phones makes media consumption greater than ever before. One effect of this, is that the indoctrinating images of the “perfect” female aesthetics have increased significance and responsibility for encouraging body modification.

I created a poll on facebook asking if people agreed that the media influenced the way they think they should look. Of the 32 people who answered, 15 agreed 100% with the statement, 13 said they thought it sometimes influenced them and only 4 completely disagreed thinking that the media has no influence on them what so ever. Interestingly, of the 4 who disagreed 100%, all but one were male.

In terms of the technical aspects of the work, There is an element of illusion in the image. 

I have combined photographic elements which initially were tonally different, I used photoshop not only to cut and paste items but also to mimic the lighting and shadows in order to create the illusion of the images belonging together, at first glance you could mistake the photographs content for any other shop. 

I included a generic boutique background as to reinforce the message that it is as easy to ‘upgrade’ your body as it is to purchase a new item of clothing.

My final composite consists of many layers, most of which are sections intricately cut out of other images. For example the body parts belong to celebrities or models.

Through using layer masks, shapes and blending modes i managed to make the body parts look like singular objects that stood alone. I then used the warp and perspective tools to ensure the body parts sat on the shelf in a relatively realistic manor. 

The warp and perspective transform tools also came in useful when adding tags to items, the angle of view helps diminish the initial ‘cut and paste’ look and gives the image more dimensions. I slightly blurred the background to introduce photographic elements such as selective focus and used the filters panel to alter the appearance of the body parts which have had a ‘plastic wrap’ filter applied to them, not only to make them look like false interchangeable parts, but also to ensure consistency.