Elegance
PLease Press —>
In this photoshoot, I wanted to dive into the darker aspects of the human body. I believe that beauty is completely subjective, perceptual, and constructed. Since youth, society has constructed my idea of beauty for men such as being physically attractive and having six-pack abs. We are told from a young age that our flaws are not beautiful and that darkness should not be embraced. In Elegance, I strayed away from society’s idea of beauty and portrayed my version, based on flaws and nightmare-ish beauty.
The model’s expression symbolizes society’s attitude toward life and the twisted body figure symbolizes reality. No matter how excruciatingly painful life can become, one should stay composed and fight through it to see the end. In a way, pain is beauty, as it promotes growth. I feel like sometimes, the world ignores our suffering, not wanting to associate or deal with it. But through suffering, we become mature and experienced. I wanted to explore and exaggerate our hardships further by then tying it to nightmares. Nightmares are essentially terrifying dreams to signify what to overcome. Just like beauty, fear is parallelly subjective, and by twisting nightmares enough, they can become alluring.
As this was one of my earliest photoshoots, I exercised different photography techniques through abstract and realism. Discovering that these differing styles can be accomplished by altering distance while shooting, I’ve chosen three photos to capture a realistic, abstract, and blend between the two, to show my idea through multiple methods.