To me this is about false beauty. The woman looking at the image of a Barbie like creature wanting to be like her and then realising that this look is unachievable. Well it is achievable through “plastic” surgery. Images like this always bother me because of the falseness of accepted beauty. The woman is attractive in her own right but longs for something accepted. I find it to be more deceitful to one to look up to a sense of beauty that is false rather than true. Many children in the states fall into this ideal and go through health issues to achieve it.
I even believe it is here on Pbase and how we look at images from children to adults. We are more inclined to vote for and look at photos of beauty and accepted beauty in various aged models. I also believe that it is not done intentionally but done within the power of advertising of what is beauty and what is not. So much is thrown at the consumer in what is established as attractive that we can easily fall into the trap.
Guest
26-Nov-2005 11:26
one of my favourites in this gallery. well done! voted
Guest
19-Nov-2005 16:38
I like it. Makes you wonder what's she's looking at. But, I guess that's the power of the image.
Another incongruous image, Kal because the sitter and the painting are of two different people. The sitter's face is a study in languorous vanity, the painter and painting is abstracted by frame and soft focus, and the human value of self-deceit comes through loudly and clearly.
