IF
The world is in a state of redefinition and some of the understanding of self comes from looking backward. With my project, IF, I have revisited my photograph archive, reexamining ideas and work from another time in my life. IF considers self-identity and beauty and looks at how advertising invites comparisons. This concept parallels what is affecting teenage girls today as they seek to define themselves through social media.
When I created this performative project, I was exploring questions that examined what was making me feel inadequate and imperfect. Advertising images have always held interest for me. Fashion magazines often use larger-than-life-size images that are suggestive, intriguing, disturbing, and intimidating. They deliver a message that our body parts and/or size or type are other than what’s desirable.
What I really see in these photographs is the way that advertising leads one to think - what if I used that lipstick and I could have those lips? What if I had those eyes? Would I be better? Beautiful? Younger? Successful? Sexier? And then with the wisdom of time and age I consider – does having this mouth, these lips, or these hands really matter at all?
