They Grow Up So Fast …reflection on ‘Photo Booth’ and consideration of power
I looked at the following images that were posted in an article on wordpress and found a link with my previous ideas surrounding ‘memory.’ My Photo Booth series contains shots of one subject at different periods of time for over roughly 20 years. This series of photographs appealed to me as it communicates the same idea of the passing of time, yet it provides evidence for my focus on the believablity of photographs as documents – In reality, the model is the same age in every one of the following images.
(Vogue Paris November 2008 with Eniko Mihalik by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin styled by Carine Roitfeld, make-up by Lisa Butler)
By use of lighting and make up, the photographer manages to change the appearance of the model, where before our eyes, she artificially ages 50 years. This is a good example of the portrayal and creation of ideologies existing amongst different age groups. The clothing and posture in each of the photographs is very carefully considered. The coming of age is something that younger generations try to displace themselves from, as an older generation’s ideology is to embrace it. The model is shown to become sophistocated, experienced, and confident in herself. To gain more of a critical perspective, I considered the context in which this article originated – Vogue Magazine, Paris, 2008 and its audience.
I understand from this, that fashion magazines are one of the most critical in forming ideologies and shaping expectations of society. The article might encourage confidence amongst an older audience, but it also forms a type of checklist. Members of the audience will see their particular age group considered and summarised all in the form of one photo. As they relate with their particular age group depicted, this implicates that they should then relate to the ideology portrayed in the final image. Wealth, confidence, success, power, knowledge and beauty are some of the charactistics of the images. But what happens if you do not match up to this checklist shown?
To summarise, these images show a similar theme to my series ‘Photo Booth,’ but have very different connotations. Because of this, these images also become a good example of the power of photography and it’s many sub categories in forming and shaping ideologies.
