Two Worlds Collide

This is the World's First Camera!!

This week’s topic of photography is quite fun for me. I personally can’t imagine my life without the invention of the camera. I carry my camera in my purse everywhere, just in case I want to capture a moment. I have thousands of photos that allow me to look back through the years quite easily. It is difficult to imagine a world where photographs were rare and hard to come by. It’s something I hadn’t really thought much about, until now. I guess it goes to show how easily things can be taken for granted.

Viewing the artwork of Aziz, Cucher, and Keith Cottingham was very interesting. These images represent the same idea of the distorted body image that the world is compelled to conform to. It’s just so easy, you see it and you want to believe it. You want to become it. If they can, then why can’t I? Well, unfortunately these images aren’t realistic. However, they have men and women, young and old, striving to reach a goal that is impossible. It reminds me of the Barbie theory…it would be impossible for a woman to be proportionally alike to Barbie. She wouldn’t be able to live. So, why is it that distorting images is so widely accepted and prevalent in today’s society?

The Dove campaign is a great cause. Watching that video, although I have seen similar ones too, was very telling of the manipulation and fantasy that comes to life in the realm of photography. This transformation that is brought to life is greatly a result of technology and the advanced abilities of computer photo editing programs. I myself have photo editing programs installed on my computer, which make it so easy to manipulate photographs. It can be quite fun to see the millions of different ways a single image can appear. By simply placing text, manipulating texture or changing the lighting, you can present several different messages with a single picture. So if I can easily manipulate an image, then it goes to show how drastically a professional can change an image. Magazine editors do it every day. “Shave 5 pound off her here, give her an instant tan, change her eye color, etc.” These thoughts are reality, which goes to show why cosmetics and plastic surgery are multi-million dollar industries.

The Dystopia series, by Aziz and Cutcher was extremely mind boggling to me at first glance. Then, after looking into the content I realized that these images present the truth in a manner that is striking and different, but so realistic. If everyone strives to become this perfect image, where is our identity going. Does everyone really want to look the same? How perfect is perfect? It is the individual traits and characteristics that make us unique. Without these, who are we? The editing of the images in this series sends a great message. To erase the facial characteristics that make each person unique, the eyes and the mouth, leaves viewers wondering who the person is. This idea greatly reminds me of the internet.

Today, the internet plays a significant role in nearly everything that individuals do. The internet is like the masks that Aziz and Cutcher have created for the individuals in the images. They have no face, just as with internet communication. We are losing our sense of reality and personal contact and being replaced with the computer screen that billions of individuals sit in front of each day. With technology, comes facelessness, just like the people in the series are subjected to. The more reliant people become on these false ideals and faceless communication, the easier it becomes to give up the right to your own identity. The identity of the person behind the text on your screen is merely an idea, when in reality it could be anyone. Do you want to be the words behind the screen or the face that thought them? Are you willing to give up your identity? I believe this is the most powerful message that is being sent. If we allow such things to rule our lives, we become extinct in a way. We lose our right to self. Is that something you are willing to live without? I personally am NOT. I think the message they are trying to send is that we should love the things we have and embrace them because those "flaws" are what make us, US. I am not saying technology is a bad thing. I love the things it allows. Despite that, it does not need to replace who we are. So next time you strive to look like the girl in the magazine, take a step back and ask yourself what you are willing to sacrifice to become that person, because the steps required to become an imaginary figure will be draining, costly, and never-ending since the end result is a figment of the imagination; someone’s idea of perfection that was so perfectly manipulated with several clicks of the mouse. Do you really want to be the person who lives forever behind the screen or rather, the person who embraces the world and the “flaws” that they were gifted with?