Fashion photography is making women unhappy

lizard and accidental double exposure from not fully winding the film, fuji pro 400h, holga, huntington library

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I am starting to change my views about photography. I used to follow high-end fashion, intrigued by its infinite glamour. Never understanding why I was so turned away by it, I followed it blindly; hypnotized by its swirling beauty. I am starting to realize that photography for me is supposed to bear some sort of truth. I don't seem to find truth in post-processing, in photoshop, in airbrushing, in spot healing, in the smudge tool, nor in the clone stamp. The media uses clone stamp to exercise fear in times of war, BP is at fault too, and I'm sick of images that don't speak truth to us anymore. I know that fashion photography is far less urgent than war and the oil spill, but false beauty has its own damages.

Maybe that's why I've turned away from editing my photos. I believe the art of photography is the art of capturing the truths in life, of seeing exactly what the photographer saw, and not of a distorted reality. This concept of distorted realities applies to the fabrications of high-end fashion. I believe it's fake, giving us a false perception of beauty and the desire for an unobtainable body that all women yearn to have. These false values lead to discontent and women feeling like they're never beautiful enough. I too have a very false perception of beauty.

This is not to discredit all the professional photographers out there (because a lot of you do amazing work), this is just an observation of how my personal view on photography is changing and why I always had an empty feeling towards these beautiful images. And this is not to blame the fashion photographer for making women unhappy, this is just a by-product of our societal ways.

Before I had the faintest dream of becoming a successful fashion photographer. Now I am starting to realize that something about these photographs had a really fleeting feeling. Beauty comes and goes and the content of these images don't stick because they don't mean much to us or maybe it's hard for us to relate to. I think if I were to ever take photography as my profession, I would choose to be a photo journalist to seek truth in the world.

I realize that I let my photographs speak like documented-truths and let my drawings show the fabrications of the imagination.

12FV.