chasing an unatainable standard
Chasing An Unattainable Standard explores the indirect demands that our western society puts on us, through marketing and advertising in magazine photo spreads, to look a certain way. Marketing and advertising give rise to artificial needs by capitalizing on our desire to be accepted in society by how we look. We are not bombarded by these false needs by big business only, but we also suffer the attitudes of family, friends and acquaintances who have their own expectations. We must not exclude ourselves while questioning these demands. I have been a full time cosmetologist for 33 years and I have been asked countless times to make a client look as someone in a magazine advertisement. The question is always put to me jokingly. But, are they truly joking? I hope the photographs in this project convey the idea that our true beauty is the essence of ourselves, our soul, not our package.
