Friday Faces 17 – Has to be a Woman on International Women’s Day
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Today, 8th March is International Women’s Day and you can find out more about that here so today’s photo just had to be of a woman; a model as it happens so not a particularly good role model ( no pun intended!) for young girls in my opinion..
Objectifying women and making them look entirely artificial isn’t my idea of a good idea !
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This is the very first studio type photograph I have ever done and it was taken at the Focus on Imaging Exhibition at the NEC on Weds. There were lots of people around and no time to prepare as you can imagine so I was quite pleased with the result. There will be more to come.
I was surprised to see quite a few scantily clad women at the Exhibition, there to act as models for the presenters to photograph, talking the crowd through lighting, photoshopping etc. Not a scantily clad man in sight… Harumph!! I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised as this was gadget man’s dream place.. Sexism is alive and well in the world of photography it seems!
You can see my other Friday Faces post here.
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Sexism and objectification of women is alive and well everywhere… sigh… and for some reason, back in the 70′s we thought we were going to get rid of that once and for all… how naive we were… how naive we were to think that ‘we’ were some single-minded unit?!? Kids!
Lovely shot of the woman. Did you use natural light for this? (You may have noticed I am a huge fan of natural light… and not so fond of artificial at all).
Back to the scantily clad… I realised that I am so used to scantily clad women (been to the mall lately?) they are almost invisible unless they are unusual in some way. Scantily clad young men on the other hand – I don’t know… unless it’s the beach in Santa Monica – I want to tell them to pull up their pants, get cleaned up… not necessary cover up, but clean up… the prevailing presentation is just not sexy… and if it is – it veers toward male stripper…
Not sure if I need to think about this more or think about it less!
The lighting was studio lighting Veronica, at the show. I always use natural light but that may be more because I don’t know how to use flash! . and yes indeed I was a teenager in the 70′s, an original hippie, and we did genuinely think we were going to bring love and peace to the world.. sadly it wasn’t that easy.
Lovely photo … of a young woman. I don’t know really what I feel about this International Women Day – do we really need a special day to be taken seriously or to be heard???? I think we, women, should take any day and make it ours, get our opinion out here – say what we feel and think about everything. Personal I think if we are not able to do that, what chance do we have. Or am I out biking here??? I wish you a great weekend.
Viveka, sadly most women of the world do not have a voice for many reasons, often through an accident of birth ; being born in a country where women are not educated and have no freedom.
Steve read me a poem this morning by a Polish writer who won the Nobel Prize…called “The Women of Rubens” by Wislawa Szymborska. Think of how fascinated art has been over the ages with the idea of beauty and women. We’re still dancing with those concepts…do we control it, explain it, enthrone it, deconstruct it, deny it, what? What attitude is appreciative? or realistic? or humble? How do we embrace all that woman is? Not easily. Here’s a link that posts 3 translations of the poem. http://inwardboundpoetry.blogspot.com/2009/04/782-rubins-women-wislawa-szymborska.html
I thought I had responded to this but see that I haven’t.. sorry Scilla. I meant to say thank you so much for the poetry link. Art by men has indeed been fascinated with the female form… Is it women who present what they want to men or do they present to men what men want to see.. who knows?
The dance between presentation and response…mask, unmask, react, refine…eventually, maybe we get something we want….and then we want something else. Am I right? Gladly, I think I’ve gotten to the point that I want to be authentic, and found a man who wants the same thing!
Lucky, lucky, lucky you.. I have given up that I will ever find such a man
Be authentic for yourself, your children, your friends, the world…lots of people will benefit. I know I am one of them!
You are very kind…but none can replace intimacy with a man… don’t worry I don’t spend too much time thinking about it. I am happy alone 99% of the time
That dress is verging on the criminal but its a nice shot……..
Oh, and if you want to take some shots of me in my pants I’m sure we can work something out……..I’m very, very cheap!!
Very, very cheap.. Oh I do doubt that somehow !
No it’s true……Cheaper than the cheapest cheap…..
I am human polyester…
Urgh…
She is lovely all the same, Helen. Nicely captured.
Thanks Karen.. she was lovely
Helen, that’s an excellent portrait, and a very beautiful one too – terrific quality! Adrian
Aww thank you Adrian