Don’t Touch the Art

With my final project, like most others, I wanted to raise feminist issues within my images. Although aesthetically pleasing photographs are enjoyable, often based on their superficial beauty, I aim to create photographs with meaning behind them. From the title, I have created contemporary art-based photographs. 

In the image with Megan, I wanted to convey the censorship of the female chest compared to that of a male. To explore irony, I intentionally censored a woman’s nipples, replacing them with a man’s to show how differently they are “viewed” in society.

In the image with Mia, I created a narrative, of a woman who has run away or escaped her wedding to show that people are whole on their own. That they do not require another person to be seen as complete. I wanted to show people as art in their own right.

In the image with Caitlin, I wanted to showcase how women in particular can embrace their natural bodies, without it being sexualised. 

In the image with Emily, I collated all my ideas within the theme of “Don’t Touch the Art” because I wanted to show a person as a natural art form. I really wanted to display my love for the individuality of people.

The final image idea was created very late into the project and is related to the recent American law system trying to dictate what women do with their bodies. This photograph is in protest of that, I wanted to use this last photograph to really empower female identity.  

A main inspiration for this series is Ellen Von Unworth and how she captures women, through a female gaze, as opposed to viewing them as objects to consume. Unworth’s photographs are full of empowerment, which she evokes within the audience seamlessly. 

This project has aided me in my preparation for university and extended my photographic study to a new style. I want my work to be empowering and expressive, but also allow people to understand me more as a photographer, and as a person.