The Others

'Am I Perfect Now?' Shoot And Evaluation

Unfortunately when waking up on the day I had chosen to shoot, the weather was not on my side! Therefore I had to work with what I had, which meant I would have to shoot in the studio. Considering I had my heart set on shooting outside, I was thrilled with what I managed to produce in the studio and how well my photoshoot went. I was worried that by shooting in the studio, it would make my images look slightly boring. However, looking at my images now, I feel if I had a hectic background in my shots, this would have taken your attention away slightly from the whole idea of my photoshoot, which was the idea of girls feeling they have to be something they are not.

When organizing my photoshoot, I told my model I wanted her to wear whatever she wanted, as I wanted her to be her total self. When arriving, I asked my model to choose a few images from the internet that she classed as ‘beautiful’ and ‘perfect’. I want people to look at my work and realize how brainwashed so many of us become from what we see on the front of magazine covers or in music videos and feel that we need to look a certain way in order to fit into society.

I was quite shocked when my model chose an image of Barbie, the doll that every girl had when she was younger. I did some research into Barbie, as I was intrigued as to why my model picked her. I soon found out that the average girl from ages 3-11 owns at least 10 Barbie dolls and spends hours playing with them and dressing them up. And the more time anyone spends with anything, the more influence it has on them. So this perfect doll has not had the best impact on young girls. Of course Barbie has had many good role model jobs such as a teacher or a vet, but what was her first job? A super skinny teenage fashion model, and no matter what the job, she’s kept that look that makes most every girl jealous.

I feel that there are more pressures on girls than ever before about the proper way to look, act and dress. And they feel the need to fit in and that the only way that they can fit in is by looking acting and dressing that certain way. Of course, Barbie is always there to start these trends. So when these young girls are playing with their brand new Barbie doll, their brain is registering everything about that doll. How popular and perfect she is, and so naturally these girls are beginning to want to be just like Barbie, happy and perfect all the time, which starts many of them on their way to eating disorders.

Barbie is mainly known for her perfect looks. Hair, makeup, clothes, the works. These also lead girls to spending hour’s throwing on makeup, destroying their hair with dye and straighteners and curling irons, and begging their parents for clothes from the most expensive and popular stores to try to achieve this perfect look.

One woman named Sarah Burge,from the UK, spent over 1 million pounds just to achieve that Barbie look. Being the perfect example of how Barbie has hurt women everywhere. Her story started like every other girl who goes through this, since she was young she was taught that in order to be beautiful, you had to have the perfect hair, clothes and makeup. The older she got, the more convinced of this she was. Somewhere along the line, she decided to blow thousands of pounds trying to get this ideal look. She claims now that she has so much more confidence and that women everywhere would be smart to go through this, because “it’s okay for women to be someone they’re not.” Just another one of Barbie’s wonderful lessons. And every year she spends thousand more on her “maintenance” to keep this look up. She is teaching young girls everywhere exactly what Barbie is teaching them, in order to be fabulous, you have to be perfect. I think this is wrong and I want young girls, who are thinking of going through similar procedures that they do not need to and that they should embrace their natural beauty.

Overall, I am thoroughly pleased with the images that i have produced, I think the idea of girls thinking they need to be something that they are not, evidentley shows in my work. However, if i was able to redo my photoshoot, I would make sure I had enough time to shoot outside aswell, then compare my images and see what I felt worked best.