So for my project, my biggest obstacle right now is creativity. If you guys haven't caught on from all of my work this semester, I apparently have a big fascination with the human body and its shape/form. In this project I want to take the bodies or just faces of probably only women and photoshop them. What I have yet to decide if how I am going to photoshop them. My initial idea was to alter their image to make them look like society's definition of "perfect beauty." But then I realized it would be hard to clearly identify what "perfect beauty" truly is, and honestly we've all seen this idea before. ( Like this viral video going around the internet. ) So I feel like I really need to do something more creative than that.
My next idea was to turn the photoshopping the other way on the beauty scale and rather than transform images of women into ideal versions of themselves, I would alter them to become almost grotesquely distorted from their norm. Again, I feel like this is something you guys might have seen before and it's not very creative.
Another idea was the Barbie concept. I would transform my subjects into the overly dramatized, completely unrealistic, and plastic beauty of Barbie. Not totally sure if I have the Photoshop knowledge or abilities to do this, but its just another option on the plate for me. Also in that realm of ideas was transforming famous people known for their size or appearance and photoshopping them to look...well just way different. Like Marilyn Monroe become the size of today's runway models (aka size 0 or 2).
At this point I'm looking for all the suggestions and input I can get on ideas. I really want to stick with altering the human form in some way, but I just can't figure out how! Oh and the time part of all this will be on AfterEffects. I'll show the slow transformation from the original photo to my finished product, for multiple photos (so that the time ranges from about 1-3 minutes I'd guess), bascally like timelapse in the photo I linked up above.
Try checking out Dina Goldstein. She has a series of Barbie/Ken photographs on her website. You may find them interesting. (also check out her princesses under "Conceptual Series")
ReplyDeletehttp://dinagoldstein.com/dollhouse/f5n8djz0u0ccfssl1vvyd5fomhrm09
I think you are trying to address a very relevant issue, which is good. However, maybe it would start to figure out what exactly what you want to say. That should then give you more direction. You definitely need to be careful about how you are treating your subjects and what you are saying by altering their images. For example, if you distort their bodies to make them "distorted" where is the line between bringing attention to the issue at hand and just flat out disrespecting your subjects? Or if you do the "perfect beauty" photoshopping how is that any different from any mainstream magazine cover?
If you are trying to undermine the unrealistic popular standard of beauty, then why is it that you also want to alter the human form? Isn't that the opposite of your message?
Just things to consider...
really cool idea!
ReplyDeleteIf you want to shed light on some of the negatives of over-photoshopping and emphasize what you lose when the figures are heavily objectified, then I really like the idea of altering a celebrity. Since these people are known for their personalities, it has a lot of potential to show how altering proportions of body features and airbrushing skin etc. can replace the visual information that makes a person who they are.