Good afternoon, art lovers! This post is to share the conceptional details of a photoshoot I've been thinking up for awhile, just waiting for the right way to bring it to life. Thanks to Orion I've finally been able to make it a reality! Usually my concepts aren't so "edgy" regarding real world issues, since I try to stay away from everything political and stick to fantasy worlds, but this idea wouldn't rest until it was expressed. The basic concept is a parody on the media today's beauty standards, which make it seem like if you HAVE to be X, Y and Z aesthetically in order to be beautiful, and that's absolutely not true. It's getting better these days with acceptance movements, but all people of all shapes, sizes, and colours are beautiful, and we need to remember that. Love yourselves! Be proud of who you are, express yourself.
The "Barbie" doll by Mattel has often been looked up to as a near impossible beauty standard for young girls, so I chose to base the photoshoot around that to start. The toy line has expanded immensely, both culturally and conceptually, since Barbie first came out in 1959, but the iconic Barbie has long legs, a teeny tiny waist, blonde hair, blue eyes, and permanent make-up. While she has been seen as an icon of female empowerment (in the context of, "Little girls can grow up to be anything they want"), she has more commonly been controversial as a female role model, portraying unrealistic bodily expectations that might be discouraging to real girls that are not, in fact, dolls.
I decided to take advantage of my uncommon doll-like build and made myself into Barbie for the photoshoot, which doubles as portraying most of the common traits that the media pushes as "ideal", all of which are shared with Barbie: long, blonde hair, blue eyes, tall and underweight build, "perfect" skin, and "perfect" teeth. To further the Barbie image, I put on a pink mini-dress and pink high heels, both of which were selected to reflect stereotypical Barbie attire and fashion doll qualities, since Mattel prominently features hot pink as Barbie's trademark colour.
As Barbie herself is a doll, made out of plastic, a synthetic material, this represents fakeness, in either the physical (altering yourself to appeal to the media's standards, as opposed to altering yourself as self expression), or the persona. To really drive the plastic message home, I edited the photos in post production, purposely airbrushing my skin until it looks like plastic. Even my eyebrows were overly photoshopped, smoothed, and lightened, as if they were painted on like a doll. This is also a jab at how the media, especially magazines, often over photoshops models that are commonly already regarded as aesthetically attractive to the masses, until their skin looks like unnatural, void of any personal traits (beauty marks, freckles, etc). If you look closely in the photos you'll notice that my trademark beauty marks on my left hand and right eyebrow are gone, symbolizing having your own identity stripped away and being made into a robotic puppet.
Now, as a model, please don't think that I don't do corrections or edits post-production, because I absolutely do, and that in of itself if not something I'm against. Sure, I edit out zits and tidy things up a bit to look nice, but there's a difference between tidying up your models to make them look their best, and completely stripping them of anything that makes them uniquely human until they look like a 3D render with a bad skin texture.
Onto the best part of the shoot: the prosthetics! This is where I give a big shoutout to my "Artner" (artistic business partner), Orion Nelson. He made the silicone prosthetic skin from scratch without any instruction. He's an amazing artist and I'm honoured to be in collaboration with him. Anyway, the hooks through the skin attached to the ceiling are supposed to be reminiscent of a marionette, a puppet controlled by strings from above. This symbolizes the media's influence, making puppets out of us, which really ties in with the concept of what's "in" beauty-wise and what's not. She's forced to obey if she wants to fit in, controlled by someone else. The reason I had the hooks going through the skin was to really emphasize the message of manipulation into the viewer's head. Otherwise, I worried it'd look too much like a cosplay shoot as opposed to a conceptual/symbolic one- it's a dark themed shoot and melancholy statement, not meant to be taken as "Ooh look at the pretty doll". That, and Orion and I both looove the macabre and darker themes. It also might represent pain or strong, inescapable hold, because the hooks attached to the rope are directly in her flesh instead of tied to her.
Smaller details: if you know me very well, you'll notice a lot of these images are "smiling", but the smile is a fake, almost haunting, not one that's joyful or natural. She has to smile, because that's what the media wants. Put on your fake smile and pretend everything is okay no matter what. Not all the shots feature a smile, but when they do, look closely at the vacant expression. Smile or not, it's hollow. That brings us to the next detail, the necklace You can't see it too clearly in a lot of the shots, but it's the word "Zombie" (self explanatory concept-wise) but written in a font based off the famous Barbie font.
There were a handful of shots where I had a dollar bill taped over my mouth. This was a very last minute addition, Orion's idea. It symbolizes money keeping people quiet and influencing their actions. I don't think that money itself is the root of all evil, I see it as a good thing if you use it correctly, a tool to help further your dreams, but I do agree that it can easily be used for evil in the wrong hands, which, unfortunately, happens often.
At the time of writing this, only a couple of the shots have been uploaded so far. These take a lot of time in post-production because they're so heavily edited, maybe 10-20 minutes each. Some of the individual shots have elements of symbolism that I can't list here because they're shot specific, so if there's a particular image you like, feel free to ask about it in the dA comments. :)
Look out for more photos from this shoot soon! :) Thanks for everything, Orion!
Love,
Queen Werandra
The "Barbie" doll by Mattel has often been looked up to as a near impossible beauty standard for young girls, so I chose to base the photoshoot around that to start. The toy line has expanded immensely, both culturally and conceptually, since Barbie first came out in 1959, but the iconic Barbie has long legs, a teeny tiny waist, blonde hair, blue eyes, and permanent make-up. While she has been seen as an icon of female empowerment (in the context of, "Little girls can grow up to be anything they want"), she has more commonly been controversial as a female role model, portraying unrealistic bodily expectations that might be discouraging to real girls that are not, in fact, dolls.
I decided to take advantage of my uncommon doll-like build and made myself into Barbie for the photoshoot, which doubles as portraying most of the common traits that the media pushes as "ideal", all of which are shared with Barbie: long, blonde hair, blue eyes, tall and underweight build, "perfect" skin, and "perfect" teeth. To further the Barbie image, I put on a pink mini-dress and pink high heels, both of which were selected to reflect stereotypical Barbie attire and fashion doll qualities, since Mattel prominently features hot pink as Barbie's trademark colour.
As Barbie herself is a doll, made out of plastic, a synthetic material, this represents fakeness, in either the physical (altering yourself to appeal to the media's standards, as opposed to altering yourself as self expression), or the persona. To really drive the plastic message home, I edited the photos in post production, purposely airbrushing my skin until it looks like plastic. Even my eyebrows were overly photoshopped, smoothed, and lightened, as if they were painted on like a doll. This is also a jab at how the media, especially magazines, often over photoshops models that are commonly already regarded as aesthetically attractive to the masses, until their skin looks like unnatural, void of any personal traits (beauty marks, freckles, etc). If you look closely in the photos you'll notice that my trademark beauty marks on my left hand and right eyebrow are gone, symbolizing having your own identity stripped away and being made into a robotic puppet.
Now, as a model, please don't think that I don't do corrections or edits post-production, because I absolutely do, and that in of itself if not something I'm against. Sure, I edit out zits and tidy things up a bit to look nice, but there's a difference between tidying up your models to make them look their best, and completely stripping them of anything that makes them uniquely human until they look like a 3D render with a bad skin texture.
Onto the best part of the shoot: the prosthetics! This is where I give a big shoutout to my "Artner" (artistic business partner), Orion Nelson. He made the silicone prosthetic skin from scratch without any instruction. He's an amazing artist and I'm honoured to be in collaboration with him. Anyway, the hooks through the skin attached to the ceiling are supposed to be reminiscent of a marionette, a puppet controlled by strings from above. This symbolizes the media's influence, making puppets out of us, which really ties in with the concept of what's "in" beauty-wise and what's not. She's forced to obey if she wants to fit in, controlled by someone else. The reason I had the hooks going through the skin was to really emphasize the message of manipulation into the viewer's head. Otherwise, I worried it'd look too much like a cosplay shoot as opposed to a conceptual/symbolic one- it's a dark themed shoot and melancholy statement, not meant to be taken as "Ooh look at the pretty doll". That, and Orion and I both looove the macabre and darker themes. It also might represent pain or strong, inescapable hold, because the hooks attached to the rope are directly in her flesh instead of tied to her.
Smaller details: if you know me very well, you'll notice a lot of these images are "smiling", but the smile is a fake, almost haunting, not one that's joyful or natural. She has to smile, because that's what the media wants. Put on your fake smile and pretend everything is okay no matter what. Not all the shots feature a smile, but when they do, look closely at the vacant expression. Smile or not, it's hollow. That brings us to the next detail, the necklace You can't see it too clearly in a lot of the shots, but it's the word "Zombie" (self explanatory concept-wise) but written in a font based off the famous Barbie font.
There were a handful of shots where I had a dollar bill taped over my mouth. This was a very last minute addition, Orion's idea. It symbolizes money keeping people quiet and influencing their actions. I don't think that money itself is the root of all evil, I see it as a good thing if you use it correctly, a tool to help further your dreams, but I do agree that it can easily be used for evil in the wrong hands, which, unfortunately, happens often.
At the time of writing this, only a couple of the shots have been uploaded so far. These take a lot of time in post-production because they're so heavily edited, maybe 10-20 minutes each. Some of the individual shots have elements of symbolism that I can't list here because they're shot specific, so if there's a particular image you like, feel free to ask about it in the dA comments. :)
Look out for more photos from this shoot soon! :) Thanks for everything, Orion!
Love,
Queen Werandra
Conceptual Barbie parody photoshoot with Orion
Reviewed by WerandRa
on
1:58 PM
Rating:
Reviewed by WerandRa
on
1:58 PM
Rating:
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