Pictured above is the final selection of images to be considered for the photo-book, including the title images.

‘What are other women really thinking, feeling, experiencing, when they slip away from the gaze and culture of me?’ Naomi wolf, The Beauty Myth.

My personal study will focus on how idols within society have created not just a loss of identity but body issues and unrealistic body standards.  I will do this by using the stereotypical idols of dolls and Barbie who came under a lot of critic from the public for being an idealised and toxic role model. I plan to demonstrate my skills in photoshop by editing them in scary and haunting ways. My project will address matters that match my views of society such as prescribed female gender constructions and unrealistic body images. 

In the 21st century because of trends and social media it takes longer to become aware of what the real world looks like. Fads have caused a lack of individualism when we are supposed to be living in an age of acceptance. ‘Woman’s desire is subjugated to her image (…) as bearer, not maker, of meaning,’ (Laura Mulvey’s ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,’ 1975) Mulvey theorises that the male gaze is a social construct derived from the ideologies and discourses of a patriarchy. Mulvey applied this theory to Hollywood films believing that Hollywood films were shot from the point of view of a heterosexual masculine perspective displaying women as an object to be desired, she also believes that these films reinforced stereotypical gender roles and the idea of men being the dominant gender and the woman being ‘the weaker’ gender. My beliefs are that still in the 21^st century the male gaze is very much still a societal issue, however, it’s not just in Hollywood films. It’s on Instagram, commercials, the clothes and make up women wear and even in the doll’s girls play with as children. Young women feel that they need to comply with trends in order to be wanted, transforming themselves to fit with the male gaze. This can be dangerous for young teenage girls because it causes them to hate themselves, the way they look and their body. Instead of teaching young woman that they are beautiful and strong the world and social media teaches teenage girls that they are not beautiful and portrays this continuously. Beauty is no longer in the eye of the beholder but in the person, who takes the photo and uploads it to social media. How do dolls represent this? Part of the Male Gaze theory is that in films the camera pauses of the female’s curves and figure. Dolls are made to have the perfect hourglass figure and some even have this to an exaggerated extent. Young girls idolise Barbie so from a young age, they are conditioned into thinking that they’ve got to look like that, like a living doll and that is an unrealistic representation because the human body is not made to be like that. 

I am analysing Sheila Pree Bright because in her series Plastic Bodies, she constructs a reality that puts across her socio-political views. She believes that women are misrepresented by dolls, so to prove this she takes pictures of dolls and women before editing them together. This creates illuminating and haunting images.  The other photographer I am analysing is Laurie Simmons because she constructs a reality out of dolls and toys that show her opinions of society in a tableaux vivant style. With her work, she comments on stereotypical gender roles. Both photographers believe that these conceptions of life start from when we are a child. In 2003, Sheila Pree created her series of image Plastic bodies which aimed to show unrealistic body images and to challenge western ideals of whiteness and beauty. Heteronormative beauty ideals of whiteness and being virtuously beautiful have been embedded in society for hundreds of years. For example, in the Brother Grimm’s fairy tales’ physical attractiveness in females was rewarded and “beauty is often associated with being white, economically privileged, and virtuous.” (Baker-Sperry, L.; Grauerholz, L. (2003) For example, Snow White was described as the fairest of them all with ‘skin as white as snow.’ These heteronormative white ideals are what her work challenges and her goal was to explore how this impacted young girls and women.   

In 1972 after her work, ‘objects with legs’ Laurie Simmons found an antique doll house and was inspired with how is represented roles in society and matched how many saw the world at the times. This was during the second wave feminist movement who saw dolls as creating unfeasible body images and domestic indoctrination for young girls. Her work borders tableaux vivant in the way that in most of her pieces she has set up dolls to be carrying out stereotypical domestic roles. During my AS study I looked at how society has made the female identity mass-produced. This follows on from that project in the way that I’m looking at how idols within society have created not just a loss of identity but body issues and unrealistic body standards.   

The image above shows how Simmons works. She sets up little narratives in a studio with lighting and takes photos with a tripod.  

The images that I construct in my personal study is borrowing elements from tableaux-vivant. This is because I’m constructing scenes or realities in which to take my photos using objects. Tableux vivants originated in the medieval era. Actors would re-enact famous bible scenes during mass, this then evolved into actors creating live versions of famous paintings during the Renaissance era. These actors re-enacted paintings of Greuze, David and Isabey. Tableux viviant acting was also popular at weddings and other events. Tableux viviants became less popular in the early 19th century due to the realism movement. However, in the 20th century, actresses re-enacted nude classic paintings but then tableaux started to die out because of the invention of film, however, became popular within photography. In terms of photography, Jean-Francois Chevrier was the first to use tableaux in association which was during the 1970’s and 80’s. Photographer’s then began replicating famous paintings in constructing new meanings. Previously in my coursework, I studied Tableux viviants and reconstructed fairy tales with modern day twists. The difference with this project is that I won’t be doing it with real people but with dolls and doll house sets.  

My work also has roots in Surrealism which is all about unleashing the unconscious mind and I believe my work does this but also has socio-political connotations because they also comment on politics and society. Surrealism grew out of the World Wars in the early 20^th century and Dadaism. According to Breton’s Surrealism Manifesto (1924) the new art form is a means on linking the conscious to the unconscious so everyday life will be joined up with the subconscious in ‘ an absolute reality, a surreality.’  Some of my previous work has involved quite scary looking images and I’ve planned on doing the same with this project but by taking it another step with editing. My project is surreal in the way that the realities I plan on constructing will appear dreamlike and there is a socio-political message behind them. My Socio-political message is that society and social media has developed an unattainable and unrealistic beauty expectation for women. 

Sheila Pree Analysis:   

Plastic Bodies, Sheila Pree Bright 2003. 

This image is part of a series of images by Sheila Pree Bright called Plastic bodies created in 2003. The focus of the series was the misrepresentation of black women in dolls and Barbie. It focused on non-viable beauty standards and illogical body stereotypes. Sheila Pree Bright in conversation with Naima J. Keith Aperture.org said ‘ Although Barbie serves as a toy for children, she represents much more. The doll somehow becomes a model of beauty, a false representation of how women are physically formed. In some cases, women will aspire to this model to the extent of deconstructing their own image by various forms of beautification. I show how these extremes are illusions by using models and dolls as the subjects.’ Bright has digitally manipulated the image so that half of the face shows what a black woman looks like as a Barbie and the other side shows what a black woman really looks like, by merging two images together and blending them. Bright has taken the image with a main front light on the left side of the face leaving a small portion of the face, the part that is the real woman’s face in shadow. This could be symbolic of how the real representation of black woman is being kept in the shadows whilst this fake representation is always in the light. She’s taken the image with a larger aperture f/stop value because the depth of field is narrow, only the dolls face is in focus. Therefore, the focal point of the image is the face because it’s the only thing in focus for you to look at. Bright’s concept, of lack of correct black female representation, ties in with other works she has done. Her work always focuses on civil rights and racial inequality. This piece also ties in with my project in the way that it looks at how society has created a toxic idol and unrealistic standard of beauty. Bright told the Huffington Post that society’s constant airbrush has manipulated women’s view of themselves ‘as a result the female body becomes a replica of a doll, and the essence of natural beauty in popular American culture is replace by fantasy.’ This fits in with her concept for this image in the way that as you can see by juxta proposing two images, the real and the fake, she is startling people to look at how our ideas of beauty has become distorted and how we and pushing that onto children from a young age.  

Contextually, Bright created this image in 2003. It was part of her travelling art show called ‘posing beauty in African-American Culture.’ Bright drew upon her personal experiences to create the series and believes that her military upbringing exposed her to different cultures that made her question where she fit in. In response to Bright’s work for my project I also decided to juxta propose images together. However, instead of using an image of a doll and an image of a real woman I decided to experiment with removing the makeup that dolls have naturally because women don’t have natural make up on their faces at all time so even the little thing like the pink above the barbie’s eyes and the big eyelashes symbolises unrealistic beauty standards and makes women feel like they have to be what society thinks is beautiful all the time. Therefore, I took picture of the dolls like Bright did but then used nail varnish remover and took off their makeup. I then took pictures of them again and digitally edited the images together. The result was kind of shocking because the dolls without their makeup looked out of proportion and damaged.  

Laurie Simmons:  

‘Woman Opening Refrigerator/ Milk to the Right,’ Early Colour Interiors, Laurie Simmons 1978-79. 

This image is called ‘Woman Opening Refrigerator/ Milk to the Right,’ it’s from Simmon’s series Early Colour Interiors taken from 1978-79. Conceptually the doll is meant to represent the classic housewife which is given away by her outfit and hairstyle. She photographs this doll in multiple constructed scenes of her doing stereotypically household chores.  The concept was to demonstrate the daily life of a housewife but also to illustrate the loneliness and isolation felt by some housewives. I think this is shown by the fact that in most of the images she is the only doll and using lighting and shadows. I think she intentionally kept those shadows in order to symbolise the darkness, isolation and emptiness some housewives feel. Her work is like Bright’s in the way that she uses the doll as a symbol or manifestation of society however instead of beauty standards created by society, she looks at the role for women created by society that she herself has grown up in.  

What is interesting about her work is that she uses the doll as a bridge between generations. It’s a doll therefore, a children’s toy but she constructs and brings it into the role of an adult therefore also representing the little girls who will grow up into this isolated role. What I find most disturbing about Simmon’s work is the fact that its context has evolved with the eras. Now in the 21^st century she has focused on something many feminist photographers have been focusing on which is the role of pleasure dolls and how they symbolise how women are seen in the eyes of men, how men have replaced women with this perfect life sized doll. The results have been very startling images. The context behind Bright’s work is controversial and you can really see how it influences her work. The 70’s were a massive decade of feminism and women’s rights; there was the take back the night Campaign in 76, 1972 The Feminist Art Journal was founded, 1973 first-trimester abortion was legalised. She took them at the time of the second wave feminism movement which was all about having more than just the right to vote and reproductive rights. Therefore, it’s fascinating how instead of all that positivity she wanted to highlight the fact that women’s role in society are still not what women want them to be. That’s what I find really fascinating about her work. She focuses solely on women’s role in society and if you looked at her timeline of work you can see how women’s roles have changed in the way that more women have jobs  but at the same time the way a women’s role is seen hasn’t completely changed. I was inspired by her construction of reality using doll house sets so I did a photoshoot involving a doll in a kitchen doing ‘a woman’s tradition role’ however I put my own slightly frightening twist on the images to show how women are fighting to not be pigeon holed into domestic or objectified roles and are more open about fighting the patriarchy and striving for equality.   

My personal project has had other influences. Since this project is meant to be personal, I have taken the narrative from my own experience. Throughout my teens I’ve had issues with body confidence and my looks because of social media. However, luckily, I’ve managed to re-find that confidence in myself and realise that I may not be a size six with perfect skin but not many people are. Just because I don’t fit into what social media deems beautiful doesn’t mean I’m not and I’m proud of being able to pull myself out of the hole I was in and now I try to look nice for myself, not other people. My work has also been inspired by an Instagram account called Trophy wife Barbie who uses adult humour and barbies to recreate what she and other women are really like. So, in my project I’ve tried to apply the same humorousness to my work but make it darker. Another inspiration I had for this project was the poem Barbie doll by Marge Piercy written in 1971 the same time as some of Simmons’ work. It’s a dark poem about how a girl who dies trying to live up to the unrealistic expectations of society that is represented through the Barbie Doll.  

In conclusion, I think Bright’s and Simmon’s works are similar but different. They both construct realities to put across their point of views about society. They are both influenced by the times and by their backgrounds and both create haunting pieces of work which puts across their message even more. However, what I like most about their work is their differences. I like how Bright focuses on the misrepresentation of women and focuses on unrealistic beauty standards. For me personally, this is a very important issue to have a public debate about. Many teenagers not just girls like myself find it very hard to like the way we look and struggle with body image because of social media and just societies expectations in general. I also like how Simmons looks at women’s roles through the eyes of society. This is also a very important issue because it reminds us to keep pushing for more equality as women. For me her work has a beginning which is images like the one I looked at in this essay about women’s role as a housewife and it also has an end which is her recent work called ‘the love doll’ which for me as a teenage girl creates so much discomfort in the way that it’s about the ultimate objectification of a human being not just women. For me it shows that thirty to forty years down the line things have changed but there is no happy ending which makes her work a whole lot darker than Bright’s. I am happy because with my project I’ve been able to look at these two artists work and social influencers’ work and refine it to show my meaning, my understanding and I’ve also been able to tie their two works together.  

Bibliography:  

Wolf, N (1990). The Beauty Myth. London: Chatto & Windus. 

Mulvey, L (1975), “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” London: Afterall Books. 

Baker-Sperry, L.; Grauerholz, L. (2003). “The pervasiveness and persistence of the feminine beauty ideal in children’s fairy tales”. Gender & Society. 

Vision & Justice Online: Sheila Pree Bright in Conversation with Naima J. Keith, Aperture Foundation New York. Available from: <https://aperture.org/blog/vision-justice-sheila-pree-bright/> [15 January 2020] 

Vitto, L. 2013, Photos merge Barbie with real women, Stuff, available from <http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/9493417/Photos-merge-Barbie-with-real-women> [11 February 2020] 

Breton, A. (1924), University of Michigan Press.  

How have artists such as Toroptsov shown memory and remembrance through their use of photography.

“I have no personal memories of him.” (Toroptsov Y. Deleted scene;). Links to my work as I have no personal memories of The Nazi Occupation of Jersey 1939 – 1945. Within my work I am going to try and begin through the use of landscape photography. Though I am mainly focusing on the bunkers and fortifications, I am also going to try and commemorate those that died during war and those that had interesting stories that occurred due to war around the island. Many artists such as Paul Virilio have explored this concept before, and generally have gotten to the conclusion that we build structures as some kind of tomb or mausoleum for those who lived at a time. We often look at these buildings, re-use them, admire them and often, allow them to become a permanent part of our landscape. Which can ultimately shape peoples lives and history.

Lots of interesting stories happened within the occupation and liberation phases of the war in Jersey. I am going to try and find out about lots of these things and try to reflect that and tell a story using photography to show things people have gone through within Jersey during the period of war.
With this work my main goal is to show remembrance and to commemorate those soldiers and people in Jersey who were affected by the effects the occupation and liberation would have had on them.

The main photographer I am going to analyse is Yury Toroptsov and his deleted scene project which shows Toroptsov challenging himself by trying to commemorate and show his family memories of his father who passed away when Toroptsov was young. This will also help me as it gives me a way to receive inspiration for different things I am able to do to show memory of war, even though I did not live through it. Photographing something that has already happened throws up many challenges, but is something that I am interested in doing.

I am also going to analyse work by Chris Dorley-Brown. I am mainly going to focus on his work within his project The Longest Way Round. This project focuses on his parents within the war (unlike Toropstovs project.) Though it is still used to commemorate and remember what happened to his parents within the war, and how they ended up together at the end of the war. This will help me get inspiration for the kind of work I need to do to display memory of war and occupation, likely more so than from Toroptsovs work due to the fact this project links directly to war rather than just to memory.

The quote “it is not just photography that is complicated, but the concepts of realism and reality too.” (Bright. S. and Van Erp. H. is it real?; 18), relates well to the work I am going to create, this is because this quote is not just saying that photography is difficult but is saying that everything you catch on photograph can be altered or changed, though may be unable to capture the full picture of what has happened in an area. This quote allows me to question my work and helped me realise, no matter what imagery I take, It will be near impossible to show the full story of any story I decide to try and show, from a time period such as The Occupation.

Historical/Theoretical Context:

Modernism was a broad term used that encompassed all the avant-garde movements, such as; dadaism, constructivism, expressionism and straight photography. Modernism was named and used mainly within the first half of the twentieth century. There were lots of different well-known artists that took a modernist approach, and though most of them such as Salvador Dali were still painting, there were a few like Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand that moved to modernist photography not only because it was different and new, but also because photography was accepted a lot more within this movement and not just thought of as a tool for science. Modernism has influenced my work and so I have tried to take a modernist approach, this is because this has allowed me to experiment with lots of different ways I can approach my photography and edit the work. It lets me decide from lots of different art movements to see how images will look in loads of different styles. Unlike approaches before modernism, such as pictorialism, which normally uses photographs with filters over them to make them seem as though they are paintings, modernism is based a lot more with the idea of photography in mind and normally rejects the ideas of religion within its imagery, which is why my images generally don’t have obvious religious aspects within them, unless they link directly to the idea of remembrance I am trying to portray. Modernism normally experiments with different forms to create an unusual look. My initial work has mirrored this idea by using images taken from unusual angles to create an idea of different shapes and lines going into unusual places.

The bunkers and other fortifications created by the Germans, tended to have a modernist edge to them. This was influenced by The Bauhaus Movement (Germany). Though, the quote, “Housing schemes, factories and office blocks designed by modernist architects were clear-headed and geometric, suggesting clean and unembellished lives for the people inside them.” (Ballard, JG. (2006) A handful of dust;). Gives us context to why the Bauhaus was shut down, this is through the fact that Hitler would have been weary of clear-headed people and wanted people to blindly follow him. So when the Nazis came into power they quickly closed the Bauhaus and turned it into an SS training school.

Artist:

The artist I have chosen to analyse is Yury Toroptsov. Toroptsov is a well known photographer, whose most well known project would likely be his project named Deleted Scene. Toroptsov began this project in order to relive memories of his father and commemorate him through his work. This links well with the work I have done because, I have also tried to commemorate and create a feeling of remembrance, but for those who were involved within the war and the occupation of Jersey. Below is an image from Yury Toroptsovs, Deleted Scene.

This image shows a small room containing lots of different books. This image is important as it can directly link to the quote “his camera. When I was nine I found it in the wardrobe where mother kept it safely for years. I dismantled it to the last screw as if looking for something hidden inside. By my own unaware hand I destroyed the last personal item connected to my father.” (Toroptsov, Y. Deleted scene). This image likely depicts where he found it or somewhere similar to show something from his past and his fathers past, when he was still alive. This can be used to link them together and show that they are and have been connected even though Toroptsov states that he has no personal memories of his father.

The image is taken at an angle and has been taken as a portrait image. This means we are able to see the whole door and entrance to the room within the image properly. The door looks very old and has cracks in it. This could also link back to memory of his father as it looks as though it has aged and been untouched for years between his death, the camera incident and now.

Lastly, the image is taken in very dim lighting using only the lights within the room and what looks to be natural lighting. This kind of lighting creates a focus on the room and may make people wonder what has happened inside, while also creating a sense of remorse in those reading for Toroptsov and his loss.

Artist 2:

Chris Dorley-Brown and his book The Longest Way Round. He shows the story of his fathers capture and eventual release from Stalag VIII B. Which is a German prison camp his father was captured and sent in 1941 while fighting in Crete. During his time in the war camp he befriended his jailer. Whose name was Conrad Barnack.

The book is also a love story between Chris’ father Peter and his mother Brenda, which is shown alongside Peters time in the war camp.It gives us a glimpse into Brenda’s lead-up to marrying Peter. Firstly, by showing us that her first husband had been killed in war and that the second had returned to America after the war. Leaving her with Peter after the war.

This is an image that Chris Dorley-Brown has taken as a part of his project the longest way round. This image depicts a part of the story of the book. He has taken this image to further the story of the project, without using more archival material. Even though he often used archival material. He still used a lot of his own images. These images he has taken are very important to the project as it creates a much clearer and very personal connection between Chris and his parents past.

This image shows an area of land full of trees and bushes surrounding lots of rocks extruding from the ground. rocky parts are likely apart of some kind of World War 2, German fortifications. This can link back to remembrance for Chris because it shows that he has been able to experience where family members have been. Nature has reclaimed this land, possibly a metaphor for time and inevitability.

This is another one of the images within Chris Dorley-Browns book. It is one of the archival images within the book. It like the other image creates a very personal connection for Chris, but this time towards his mother, Brenda, as the image shows her smiling in a car. The image is also in black and white, which would have been standard at the time the image was taken during the second world war. The image due to being in black and white, creates a lot of contrast between Brenda and the vehicle and her surroundings. This means a lot of the detail is taken out of her face and clothing, but highlights her out a lot more and makes her into the focus point of the image. Glamorous and light-hearted, this image betrays war time tragedy and circumstance.

Conclusion:

I have taken inspiration from two main artists for my work within this photobook. Yury Toroptsov and Chris Dorley-Brown, which in each project, both are looking to remember and show memories of two different things, but do so in quite similar ways. Often using close up images of places and areas that represent or link to the people who they are being used to remember. I have tried to do similar to this within my work by using close up images of different bunkers and parts of bunkers that have been destroyed or eroded over the years since the occupation. Getting a lot closer rather than at a distance allowed me to capture a lot of the intricate detail in the bunkers and walls built and maintained by the forced workers during the war, and it also lets me see how they have held up since without very much maintenance since The Occupation. With the images from my photoshoots I have taken for this project, I have selected twenty eight images from these photoshoots to be in my photobook, along with a few maps and a few images of models of the inside of some bunker tunnels. With every single one of my images I have elected to go for a black and white approach with high contrast. I have done this to create a uniformed look throughout the whole photobook, and to draw peoples attention onto more detail within the darker areas than they may have noticed without. Most of the selected images are from two different areas in Jersey, Batterie Lothringen and Batterie Moltke. So I have also added information about the defenses in these areas of the island within the photobook. Overall, I believe I have followed both Chris Dorley-Brown and Yury Toroptsovs styles within my work and have created a photobook to show what the bunkers around Jersey look like now. Though, I have slightly moved away from my original idea of showing off the landscapes with the bunkers throughout, and have moved to more architectural and close-up view through using inspiration from these chosen artists and experimenting with how different images worked.

Harvard system of Referencing

Bibliography

EXAMPLE: Sontag, S. (1979). On Photography. London; Penguin Books Ltd.

EXAMPLE: Quote inside your text: ——critic Susan Sontag says; ‘he tried to see beyond the difference between beauty and ugliness, importance and triviality.” (Sontag 1979: 27)

Toroptsov, Y. (2003 – 2019) Deleted Scene. Russia; https://www.toroptsov.com/deleted-scene – blog of his work and explains his work

Pantall, C. (2015) Deleted Scene blog;
http://colinpantall.blogspot.com/2015/11/deleted-scene-ethnic-landscape.html – blog about Yury Toroptsovs Deleted Scene project

Ballard, JG. (2006) A handful of dust;
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2006/mar/20/architecture.communities – modernism and how it affected Germany