RESEARCH

After thinking about the aspects mentioned above, I focused on social networks, as I realized that it was very difficult for me to think about the current uses of photography without mentioning social media. I took instagram as a paradigmatic example and analyzed the content that appeared when I scrolled. Thus, I realized the bombardment to which I was subjected through the typical posts of famous influencers, most of them focused on the same thing: clothes, makeup, looking slim and pretty, and even doing house chores!

This led me to reflect on gender roles and how little they have really changed over the years, despite the fact that we conceive ourselves as advanced modern societies living in a new technological and revolutionary age.

I noticed several trends:

-The need to always be perfect and with your makeup on point, whether doing sports or getting out of the shower, in any situation

-The symbiosis between capitalism and the cult of beauty, for which the industry offers you countless products to reach the canon

-A sexualization that reaches a ridiculous point, in which girls try to look sexy reading a book, drinking coffee...

MOODBOARD AND INSPO

As these gender roles had transported me 70 years ago, I started looking for advertising from the 50s and 60s, finding some similarities with today.

After this, my idea was taking shape so I focused on makeup campaigns, also including the 70's and even 80's.

Another source of inspiration has been the works of the Spanish photographer Asiria Álvarez, who makes social criticism referencing this aesthetic from the last century, but modernizing it in a certain way.

CREATIVE PROCESS

My idea was to do a fake make-up campaign advertised on Instagram, but with a photo editing style that was not at all modern, referring to the 60s/70s.

The irony is that this is a campaign that pretends to be „feminist“ and empowering, but giving the message that the most important thing is to always look pretty (which is not an empowering idea at all). In addition, the captions of the posts are full of sarcasm and seek to border on the ridiculous and inappropriate, precisely so that the viewer realizes their own contradictions.

First I did the photo session, in which I myself was the model, and later I made the template for the Instagram post. I also added some makeup illustrations.

FINAL POSTERS

After this I edited the photographs to enhance the colors, and I added those borders to both all the elements to make them look like cutouts, something that my mother (born in 1961) played with a lot as a child, since I wanted to achieve a striking and playful appearance for the final posters.