The Female-Challenging Convention
Essay Title: The Female – Challenging the Convention
Name: Amy Mundey:
Candidate Number:
Contents:
Introduction
Analysis of Photographer Helmut Newton and Image Analysis
Analysis of Photographer Corrine Day and Image Analysis
Analysis of Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and Image Analysis
Analysis of conventional photography of women and the female body, what women have been used for within photography and their relationship with the audience?
Conclusion of how the three photographers have challenged the image of women within fashion and photography.
Introduction
I want to look at and research ‘The female’ and how women have been used within photography. I also want to look at photographers that have pushed and challenged boundaries …show more content…
within their photography by using women. How they have done this is of particular interest to me and also why women and the female body have been at the heart of their campaigns. Helmut Newton, Corrine Day and Robert Mapplethorpe have all challenged the conventions of their time by their images of women and this has caused a variety of responses from the public and changed the way women are viewed.
Helmut Newton - ‘Bad Boy of Photography’
The photographer that marked a turning point in photography and the image of woman, it was of course provocative but captured all our collective passions and desires.
Helmut Newton created images for his own sake, and didn’t dwell on the thoughts of the public, he said ‘No, I do only what pleases me’ this was a good thing as if he had listened to the first comments of the public too much he wouldn’t have produced another picture. His images were controversial, at this point in time moral boundaries were narrow but his images created change and new beginnings were starting to emerge, not only his effect of the photographic world, but the role and status of women. What particularly interests me about Newton’s work is that many look upon it as pornographic and turn their nose up because they either find the nude images too intimidating and pretend not to be interested, however much it was disapproved of his images became so well known and famous because underneath this disapproval by some people the images actually held desires, wishes and dreams. Newton translated into pictures what many only dare to fantasise about, but with those who did, they loved the images as it touched the publics collective longings.
Newton was a fashion photographer, he did photograph fashion collections, but he generally used fashion as an excuse for something else. ‘Fashion was a theatre curtain that must be pulled aside and he was fascinated by the idea that under the clothing of women was a well-formed body. He showed us what was underneath the clothes and went from fashion to exploit his own passions and fantasies. He explored constantly and pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable and unacceptable in photography. In the images where he photographed girls stark naked under fur coats in the Paris Metro he admitted ‘You can land in jail for something like that , because the metro has very strict rules’ this showed he loved to test these boundaries. Newton liked to stage his images, they were all arranged and controlled by himself. He said ‘they reflect what I see in life with my own eyes’ he loved to achieve absolute control over his picture. From reading particular books I have seen that this control was an ongoing tendency in Newton’s life.
Helmut Newton was without a doubt one of the biggest witnesses of the dramatically changing role of women, you can thank him for some of the changes since 1970 as he pushed boundaries of what was seen as acceptable and forbidden. He taught us about ‘the woman’ through his images and captured not only what was in the image itself but the desires and wishes of the public and their changing attitudes to sexuality.
Image Analysis
Title: They’re coming!
Date: First Publication 1981, French Vogue
The image titled ‘They’re Coming’ was a story of the woman, in the image there are four subjects, they are all completely naked showing Newton’s success of testing the boundaries of photography, his women no longer hide behind fur coats, there nudity was full. The image is very strong, their bodies look like columns their femininity is dominant. The neutral background and studio lighting make the contours and the shape of the women stand out even more, they look chiselled adding to the strength that the women have, they look threatening as though they are ready to conquer the world of men. All four of the women are wearing high heels a signature item that Helmut had in all of his nudes of women, He said ‘ my first glance goes to her shoes and I hope that they are high, High heels make a woman very sexy and give her something threatening’ this adds to the intimidating role that each woman has in the photograph. The image also clarifies the influence that his images have on the public and why they became so famous, what woman would not want to be one of these four in the image, each woman has a strong female body, they all have perfect shaped breasts, legs and waists and have very beautiful faces and hairstyles and exude power and glamour. I think that the image was also strongly targeted at males, and is particularly threatening and doesn’t not demoralise the female body in anyway.
The picture has an imaginary line down the middle which almost reflects one side to the other, the two longer haired females stand upfront and the shorter haired females stand toward the back and very nearly have the same stance. All the women are standing on one foot, with the other looking like it is going to be placed in front of the other. Giving the impression that they are walking forward towards the camera, making the women even more powerful as they are like a force, striding ahead.
The image was made more interesting as it was featured in French Vogue along with its clothed partner. Helmut decided to make two versions: one nude and one dressed. This showed his passion in the opposition between when a woman is naked and clothed and also goes back to when he said that clothes were like a theatre curtain that must be pulled aside. From observing the two pictures carefully there are some differences that aren’t completely obvious to start with, but may hold an underlying message. The continuity in the naked and clothed image is missing. Was this intentional? The ever so important high heels have been mixed up within the two images and the model on the back left has changed over her stationary and moving leg to the opposite way. These small changes that may go unnoticed are actually important. All Newton’s images were set up and controlled by himself and if he had wanted to image to be exactly the same as the other according to stance and footwear then he would have made it this way, but he has intentionally changed this for a reason. It makes the image seem less perfect, all the women have beautiful figures and faces, before these minor differences was the image of the women too perfect?
What particularly interested me whilst reading a little bit about the image ‘They’re coming’ was that when it was published in vogue, the nude version was placed on the left hand page and the clothed on the right, and in the magazine and printing industry the right side page is considered to be the most important.
Which is understandable as it was a fashion magazine, however in Helmut Newton’s book ‘Big Nudes’ he was responsible for the order and placed them the opposite way round, indicating which image was more important to him.
There are a lot of hidden meanings behind why this image is so iconic and popular, to Helmut’s testing of boundaries and the success that he had with this, to how his control over his images had important messages, his combined wishes and desires with the public. The only fact that has not been hidden and a significant theme throughout his work is that of the dominant femininity of the woman.
<Insert> Corrine …show more content…
Day
Robert Mapplethorpe
Mapplethorpe was born and brought up as a Roman Catholic in Queens, New York. He was the most talked about photographer of the 1980’s and explored male and female nudes and particularly documenting New York’s gay S&M scene.
He had been raised a catholic and a lot of his pictures embodied this belief in some way, however he was also obsessed with sex and was in fact gay, a contradiction to say the least. His pictures of erotic male nudes and sadomasochistic practices were self exploration, his images were shocking due to his subject matter but so real and truthful, they caused controversy due to them being so graphic and erotic. His images explored his fantasies and were discussed so much as nobody had seen such obscene imagery and an example of one of his works featured himself, doubled over without pants and a bullwhip dangling from his orifice, the image that I too found shocking, but could appreciate his passion for something he wanted to explore and reveal to the public. Thanks to Mapplethorpe now in the 21st century we know about these types of sexual references and find them less shocking and apart of our knowledge that everyone doesn’t have the same passions.
The reason why I chose to look at Robert Mapplethorpe was not because of his exploration of the homosexual scene, but due to his work involving female nudes. He challenged the convention that stamina and strength was not limited to a single sex and people that thought this had a very limited mind set. He participated in transforming the contemporary image of the woman, he had already done this with the new images of a male, through his meeting and images of Lisa Lyon, the first female champion of body building he found his ideal muse to embrace the new strong female. The 1980’s was a perfect time to introduce a fresh concept, that of the physically powerful woman, there time of meeting was ideal due to the vision the public had of the female body at the time.
Lisa Lyon was regarded as one of female body buildings pioneers she was ambitious, goal – orientated and persevered. The set of images by Mapplethorpe featured in Lady Lisa Lyon a book on the body builder; the collaboration between then both was short due to Mapplethorpe dying of AIDS in 1989 however they broadened our understanding of the realities of the modern woman.
Analysis of conventional photography of women and the female body, what women have been used for within photography and their relationship with the audience?
The first images of women came from early paintings and then photographs were also produced, although very different, women appeared very similar in both types of art form.
Women were very stereotypical in these images, shown as a mistress or wife; they rarely looked at the camera (facing to the side or downwards) and appeared very demure showing that they were objects to be looked at. Portraits of women were used for ownership and decoration, and also religiously like the portrait of the Virgin Mary. As well as these passive poses the women were surrounded by symbolic iconography like flowers (similar to that in the photograph of Lisa Lyon), clothing and paintings. This early image of the female has tended to cause an objectification of women and their bodies, women looked so soft and elegant and became the way men of the time wanted them to look like, what was socially acceptable and what people
expected.
Women were for the purpose of the ‘male gaze’ and because objectification is the purpose of photography, images and photographs of women became doubly ‘objectifying’.
This is what women were used for within photography, purely for the purpose of satisfying the male eye.
Early pornographic images of women were similar. Clothing, props, positioning and social class suggested a woman’s availability. They used stereotypical iconography to show the woman’s purpose. An example of this is in Victorian times, images of ‘loose’ women were represented by a certain class, laundresses who were low paid and had a tendency to drink alcohol to cancel out their job and heat from laundry were photographed as objects of desire in a pornographic way, again for the intention of pleasing the male eye.
From looking at early images of women and the conventions at that time, I soon realised the ownership that men had when it came to photographs of women. Some reasons for the images was so that they could be looked at by men. Whilst reading upon the female body and how it has been used in photography I came across the work of Cindy Sherman, she looks at how the female body has been used as a sexual object.
Her image of a self constructed doll made of plastic is her portrayal of her concerns of sexual difference, identity and also the facts that make a woman the object of sexual desire. The female body in the image has been constructed by Sherman herself and she has put particular emphasis on the breasts and vaginal area, the most intimate parts of the female body. These both stand out, in a larger than life way, especially the vaginal area which has a sausage placed in it, representing a penis in which also suggests blatant male power. Instead of the image being an actual person, she has used the plastic doll as it is seen as a play thing a representation of what the female body has become to the male. Like the Barbie doll, used for children to play with as a toy, the women has been used in this way or even perhaps the blow up dolls used in adult sex shops.
It also refers to Modern day pornography and images of women, the doll is in a pose typical of many images of females today and although it is quite a grotesque image, that many wouldn’t find appealing, when read about you soon see that this is a visual convention of pornographic images today, something that we have become used to. This has also effected young peoples attitudes to sex and women, pornographic images being available to children as young as 12 will soon start to effect their views on what the female and sex is all about, creating a distorted view.
Not only does this image imply that the female is being used for the sexual desires of men it also makes women seem as though they are in acceptance with this portrayal of themselves. I have already researched into the fact that women are an object for the male gaze within photography, in this image it is apparent that this subject has been of interest to Sherman. The face of the doll is that of an ageing male, therefore showing that a woman isn't actually looking into the camera, it's playing on the fact that the gaze comes from the male. An unusual image, but displays very well the issue that the female body has been used as a sexual object in photography.
In my essay on the female I have mainly been referring to the young body of a woman, the ideal commercial image; however older women, with age and history can be used within photography and tells a much more personal story. Their features provide us with clues to whether they have children and can even tell the audience things about their life. What I particularly like about images of women with age is that all explicit sexual references are usually avoided, it’s not about what is attractive, it’s the fact they tell a story. I have taken some images myself to illustrate this point, my mother aged 47 has had three children and some cosmetic alterations to her body, the scars and marks show her story and although her body is less commercial it is a version of the female body that isn’t represented enough.
Conclusion of how the three photographers have challenged the image of women within fashion and photography.
I produced an in depth analysis on Helmut Newton and he is paramount within my essay on the female body, this idea that women are for the purpose of the male gaze and that they are object of male desire has become very familiar and exists strongly now within the pornography, glamour and fashion industries.
Helmut Newton challenged this concept, his images didn’t show women with passive poses, but embraced the dominant female, and made the female body look strong. His famous High Heels were a metaphor for the penis and male penetration and they became a women’s weapon which made them threatening. Helmut Newton challenged this convention that women should gentle and coy and although some may argue that in Newton’s images the women are still an objects of desire and have been controlled by the male eye ( Helmut Newton's himself) it has all been for the purpose to make the image of females stronger and more domineering.
Corrine day, my second artist link has also challenged conventional fashion photography where women are used. She was fed up of this glamorous and perfect image of women that in a way Helmut Newton and others embraced, she created a look called 'Heroin Chic'. This look was controversial as it no longer painted the picture that women were flawless and womanly, they certainly didn’t look as though they lived life via the rule book. The look she created almost made women unattractive in many ways, their waif and frail bodies often ravaged by drugs and poverty was completely different to the graceful, feminine bodies that were once our objects of desire.
It appeared that she wanted to get the message across that not all women were perfect, and that this image wasn’t beautiful to everyone. Critics said that Corrine’s image of beauty was 'distorted' and although I mainly agree, I think her photography made women less objectified by men, as the women were less appealing due to their lifestyle and bodies. although being less objectified by men seemed a good thing, there was a darker side to her photography. The women, her friends were now controlled by drugs and alcohol instead.
The Heroin chic image wasn’t necessarily a good thing; people have said it encouraged anorexia and drug taking. But it did challenge the conventions of fashion photography at the time, it was the grim truth behind some models lives, Corrine wanted to show us the struggle and that it wasn’t always such an attractive way of life. Nevertheless this new image soon became the standard, not surprisingly with Kate moss, a beautiful model being the face of Day’s look. Size Zero and the aspiration to be thin have taken over. Models now are painfully thin and this strange image of beauty has become reality.
The argument that has come of looking at how women are used in photography and looking at Corrine day is what was better? Women being portrayed to be perfect, glamorous and possibly an object of desire for men. Or the fact that they are no longer conventionally beautiful and no longer as attractive to the male eye, but the reality of this image is harmful and unhealthy for women.
I finally looked at Robert Mapplethorpe, His images of Lisa Lyon were very significant in challenging the conventional image of a woman. She was such a physically strong woman and a world class female body builder and had an image that at the time was associated with men. Due to Mapplethorpe being one of the most influential and noted photographers of his time, it insured that people got the message of the new modern woman. The exploration before Lisa Lyon were so controversial and shocking that these images together with his exploration of flowers balanced out his image as a gay/ sadomasochistic photographer but due to the truth and theme of his previous photography people listened to the message that he was getting across about the changing image of a woman and therefore became part of this transformation.
Conclusion of my project and final pieces
These two images are just some of the final photographs that I have picked to represent my journey through challenging the conventional image of the female.
Name: Amy Mundey:
Candidate Number:
Contents:
Introduction
Analysis of Photographer Helmut Newton and Image Analysis
Analysis of Photographer Corrine Day and Image Analysis
Analysis of Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and Image Analysis
Analysis of conventional photography of women and the female body, what women have been used for within photography and their relationship with the audience?
Conclusion of how the three photographers have challenged the image of women within fashion and photography.
Introduction
I want to look at and research ‘The female’ and how women have been used within photography. I also want to look at photographers that have pushed and challenged boundaries …show more content…
within their photography by using women. How they have done this is of particular interest to me and also why women and the female body have been at the heart of their campaigns. Helmut Newton, Corrine Day and Robert Mapplethorpe have all challenged the conventions of their time by their images of women and this has caused a variety of responses from the public and changed the way women are viewed.
Helmut Newton - ‘Bad Boy of Photography’
The photographer that marked a turning point in photography and the image of woman, it was of course provocative but captured all our collective passions and desires.
Helmut Newton created images for his own sake, and didn’t dwell on the thoughts of the public, he said ‘No, I do only what pleases me’ this was a good thing as if he had listened to the first comments of the public too much he wouldn’t have produced another picture. His images were controversial, at this point in time moral boundaries were narrow but his images created change and new beginnings were starting to emerge, not only his effect of the photographic world, but the role and status of women. What particularly interests me about Newton’s work is that many look upon it as pornographic and turn their nose up because they either find the nude images too intimidating and pretend not to be interested, however much it was disapproved of his images became so well known and famous because underneath this disapproval by some people the images actually held desires, wishes and dreams. Newton translated into pictures what many only dare to fantasise about, but with those who did, they loved the images as it touched the publics collective longings.
Newton was a fashion photographer, he did photograph fashion collections, but he generally used fashion as an excuse for something else. ‘Fashion was a theatre curtain that must be pulled aside and he was fascinated by the idea that under the clothing of women was a well-formed body. He showed us what was underneath the clothes and went from fashion to exploit his own passions and fantasies. He explored constantly and pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable and unacceptable in photography. In the images where he photographed girls stark naked under fur coats in the Paris Metro he admitted ‘You can land in jail for something like that , because the metro has very strict rules’ this showed he loved to test these boundaries. Newton liked to stage his images, they were all arranged and controlled by himself. He said ‘they reflect what I see in life with my own eyes’ he loved to achieve absolute control over his picture. From reading particular books I have seen that this control was an ongoing tendency in Newton’s life.
Helmut Newton was without a doubt one of the biggest witnesses of the dramatically changing role of women, you can thank him for some of the changes since 1970 as he pushed boundaries of what was seen as acceptable and forbidden. He taught us about ‘the woman’ through his images and captured not only what was in the image itself but the desires and wishes of the public and their changing attitudes to sexuality.
Image Analysis
Title: They’re coming!
Date: First Publication 1981, French Vogue
The image titled ‘They’re Coming’ was a story of the woman, in the image there are four subjects, they are all completely naked showing Newton’s success of testing the boundaries of photography, his women no longer hide behind fur coats, there nudity was full. The image is very strong, their bodies look like columns their femininity is dominant. The neutral background and studio lighting make the contours and the shape of the women stand out even more, they look chiselled adding to the strength that the women have, they look threatening as though they are ready to conquer the world of men. All four of the women are wearing high heels a signature item that Helmut had in all of his nudes of women, He said ‘ my first glance goes to her shoes and I hope that they are high, High heels make a woman very sexy and give her something threatening’ this adds to the intimidating role that each woman has in the photograph. The image also clarifies the influence that his images have on the public and why they became so famous, what woman would not want to be one of these four in the image, each woman has a strong female body, they all have perfect shaped breasts, legs and waists and have very beautiful faces and hairstyles and exude power and glamour. I think that the image was also strongly targeted at males, and is particularly threatening and doesn’t not demoralise the female body in anyway.
The picture has an imaginary line down the middle which almost reflects one side to the other, the two longer haired females stand upfront and the shorter haired females stand toward the back and very nearly have the same stance. All the women are standing on one foot, with the other looking like it is going to be placed in front of the other. Giving the impression that they are walking forward towards the camera, making the women even more powerful as they are like a force, striding ahead.
The image was made more interesting as it was featured in French Vogue along with its clothed partner. Helmut decided to make two versions: one nude and one dressed. This showed his passion in the opposition between when a woman is naked and clothed and also goes back to when he said that clothes were like a theatre curtain that must be pulled aside. From observing the two pictures carefully there are some differences that aren’t completely obvious to start with, but may hold an underlying message. The continuity in the naked and clothed image is missing. Was this intentional? The ever so important high heels have been mixed up within the two images and the model on the back left has changed over her stationary and moving leg to the opposite way. These small changes that may go unnoticed are actually important. All Newton’s images were set up and controlled by himself and if he had wanted to image to be exactly the same as the other according to stance and footwear then he would have made it this way, but he has intentionally changed this for a reason. It makes the image seem less perfect, all the women have beautiful figures and faces, before these minor differences was the image of the women too perfect?
What particularly interested me whilst reading a little bit about the image ‘They’re coming’ was that when it was published in vogue, the nude version was placed on the left hand page and the clothed on the right, and in the magazine and printing industry the right side page is considered to be the most important.
Which is understandable as it was a fashion magazine, however in Helmut Newton’s book ‘Big Nudes’ he was responsible for the order and placed them the opposite way round, indicating which image was more important to him.
There are a lot of hidden meanings behind why this image is so iconic and popular, to Helmut’s testing of boundaries and the success that he had with this, to how his control over his images had important messages, his combined wishes and desires with the public. The only fact that has not been hidden and a significant theme throughout his work is that of the dominant femininity of the woman.
<Insert> Corrine …show more content…
Day
Robert Mapplethorpe
Mapplethorpe was born and brought up as a Roman Catholic in Queens, New York. He was the most talked about photographer of the 1980’s and explored male and female nudes and particularly documenting New York’s gay S&M scene.
He had been raised a catholic and a lot of his pictures embodied this belief in some way, however he was also obsessed with sex and was in fact gay, a contradiction to say the least. His pictures of erotic male nudes and sadomasochistic practices were self exploration, his images were shocking due to his subject matter but so real and truthful, they caused controversy due to them being so graphic and erotic. His images explored his fantasies and were discussed so much as nobody had seen such obscene imagery and an example of one of his works featured himself, doubled over without pants and a bullwhip dangling from his orifice, the image that I too found shocking, but could appreciate his passion for something he wanted to explore and reveal to the public. Thanks to Mapplethorpe now in the 21st century we know about these types of sexual references and find them less shocking and apart of our knowledge that everyone doesn’t have the same passions.
The reason why I chose to look at Robert Mapplethorpe was not because of his exploration of the homosexual scene, but due to his work involving female nudes. He challenged the convention that stamina and strength was not limited to a single sex and people that thought this had a very limited mind set. He participated in transforming the contemporary image of the woman, he had already done this with the new images of a male, through his meeting and images of Lisa Lyon, the first female champion of body building he found his ideal muse to embrace the new strong female. The 1980’s was a perfect time to introduce a fresh concept, that of the physically powerful woman, there time of meeting was ideal due to the vision the public had of the female body at the time.
Lisa Lyon was regarded as one of female body buildings pioneers she was ambitious, goal – orientated and persevered. The set of images by Mapplethorpe featured in Lady Lisa Lyon a book on the body builder; the collaboration between then both was short due to Mapplethorpe dying of AIDS in 1989 however they broadened our understanding of the realities of the modern woman.
Analysis of conventional photography of women and the female body, what women have been used for within photography and their relationship with the audience?
The first images of women came from early paintings and then photographs were also produced, although very different, women appeared very similar in both types of art form.
Women were very stereotypical in these images, shown as a mistress or wife; they rarely looked at the camera (facing to the side or downwards) and appeared very demure showing that they were objects to be looked at. Portraits of women were used for ownership and decoration, and also religiously like the portrait of the Virgin Mary. As well as these passive poses the women were surrounded by symbolic iconography like flowers (similar to that in the photograph of Lisa Lyon), clothing and paintings. This early image of the female has tended to cause an objectification of women and their bodies, women looked so soft and elegant and became the way men of the time wanted them to look like, what was socially acceptable and what people
expected.
Women were for the purpose of the ‘male gaze’ and because objectification is the purpose of photography, images and photographs of women became doubly ‘objectifying’.
This is what women were used for within photography, purely for the purpose of satisfying the male eye.
Early pornographic images of women were similar. Clothing, props, positioning and social class suggested a woman’s availability. They used stereotypical iconography to show the woman’s purpose. An example of this is in Victorian times, images of ‘loose’ women were represented by a certain class, laundresses who were low paid and had a tendency to drink alcohol to cancel out their job and heat from laundry were photographed as objects of desire in a pornographic way, again for the intention of pleasing the male eye.
From looking at early images of women and the conventions at that time, I soon realised the ownership that men had when it came to photographs of women. Some reasons for the images was so that they could be looked at by men. Whilst reading upon the female body and how it has been used in photography I came across the work of Cindy Sherman, she looks at how the female body has been used as a sexual object.
Her image of a self constructed doll made of plastic is her portrayal of her concerns of sexual difference, identity and also the facts that make a woman the object of sexual desire. The female body in the image has been constructed by Sherman herself and she has put particular emphasis on the breasts and vaginal area, the most intimate parts of the female body. These both stand out, in a larger than life way, especially the vaginal area which has a sausage placed in it, representing a penis in which also suggests blatant male power. Instead of the image being an actual person, she has used the plastic doll as it is seen as a play thing a representation of what the female body has become to the male. Like the Barbie doll, used for children to play with as a toy, the women has been used in this way or even perhaps the blow up dolls used in adult sex shops.
It also refers to Modern day pornography and images of women, the doll is in a pose typical of many images of females today and although it is quite a grotesque image, that many wouldn’t find appealing, when read about you soon see that this is a visual convention of pornographic images today, something that we have become used to. This has also effected young peoples attitudes to sex and women, pornographic images being available to children as young as 12 will soon start to effect their views on what the female and sex is all about, creating a distorted view.
Not only does this image imply that the female is being used for the sexual desires of men it also makes women seem as though they are in acceptance with this portrayal of themselves. I have already researched into the fact that women are an object for the male gaze within photography, in this image it is apparent that this subject has been of interest to Sherman. The face of the doll is that of an ageing male, therefore showing that a woman isn't actually looking into the camera, it's playing on the fact that the gaze comes from the male. An unusual image, but displays very well the issue that the female body has been used as a sexual object in photography.
In my essay on the female I have mainly been referring to the young body of a woman, the ideal commercial image; however older women, with age and history can be used within photography and tells a much more personal story. Their features provide us with clues to whether they have children and can even tell the audience things about their life. What I particularly like about images of women with age is that all explicit sexual references are usually avoided, it’s not about what is attractive, it’s the fact they tell a story. I have taken some images myself to illustrate this point, my mother aged 47 has had three children and some cosmetic alterations to her body, the scars and marks show her story and although her body is less commercial it is a version of the female body that isn’t represented enough.
Conclusion of how the three photographers have challenged the image of women within fashion and photography.
I produced an in depth analysis on Helmut Newton and he is paramount within my essay on the female body, this idea that women are for the purpose of the male gaze and that they are object of male desire has become very familiar and exists strongly now within the pornography, glamour and fashion industries.
Helmut Newton challenged this concept, his images didn’t show women with passive poses, but embraced the dominant female, and made the female body look strong. His famous High Heels were a metaphor for the penis and male penetration and they became a women’s weapon which made them threatening. Helmut Newton challenged this convention that women should gentle and coy and although some may argue that in Newton’s images the women are still an objects of desire and have been controlled by the male eye ( Helmut Newton's himself) it has all been for the purpose to make the image of females stronger and more domineering.
Corrine day, my second artist link has also challenged conventional fashion photography where women are used. She was fed up of this glamorous and perfect image of women that in a way Helmut Newton and others embraced, she created a look called 'Heroin Chic'. This look was controversial as it no longer painted the picture that women were flawless and womanly, they certainly didn’t look as though they lived life via the rule book. The look she created almost made women unattractive in many ways, their waif and frail bodies often ravaged by drugs and poverty was completely different to the graceful, feminine bodies that were once our objects of desire.
It appeared that she wanted to get the message across that not all women were perfect, and that this image wasn’t beautiful to everyone. Critics said that Corrine’s image of beauty was 'distorted' and although I mainly agree, I think her photography made women less objectified by men, as the women were less appealing due to their lifestyle and bodies. although being less objectified by men seemed a good thing, there was a darker side to her photography. The women, her friends were now controlled by drugs and alcohol instead.
The Heroin chic image wasn’t necessarily a good thing; people have said it encouraged anorexia and drug taking. But it did challenge the conventions of fashion photography at the time, it was the grim truth behind some models lives, Corrine wanted to show us the struggle and that it wasn’t always such an attractive way of life. Nevertheless this new image soon became the standard, not surprisingly with Kate moss, a beautiful model being the face of Day’s look. Size Zero and the aspiration to be thin have taken over. Models now are painfully thin and this strange image of beauty has become reality.
The argument that has come of looking at how women are used in photography and looking at Corrine day is what was better? Women being portrayed to be perfect, glamorous and possibly an object of desire for men. Or the fact that they are no longer conventionally beautiful and no longer as attractive to the male eye, but the reality of this image is harmful and unhealthy for women.
I finally looked at Robert Mapplethorpe, His images of Lisa Lyon were very significant in challenging the conventional image of a woman. She was such a physically strong woman and a world class female body builder and had an image that at the time was associated with men. Due to Mapplethorpe being one of the most influential and noted photographers of his time, it insured that people got the message of the new modern woman. The exploration before Lisa Lyon were so controversial and shocking that these images together with his exploration of flowers balanced out his image as a gay/ sadomasochistic photographer but due to the truth and theme of his previous photography people listened to the message that he was getting across about the changing image of a woman and therefore became part of this transformation.
Conclusion of my project and final pieces
These two images are just some of the final photographs that I have picked to represent my journey through challenging the conventional image of the female.