2nd Place winner
Beauty Madness
DESCRIPTION
My new photo project "Beauty Madness," is about modern beauty ideals that distort women and make them look like dolls instead of emphasizing their individuality. I want to satirically question these ideals because our society seems to be slowly getting fed up with them – with egalitarianism and imposed beauty standards.In fact, these ideals follow the principles of the beauty industry: money is made by exploiting women's inner complexes. Beauty images such as full lips or a large butt are constantly being forced upon us in the media.
As we know, there were certain ideas of female beauty in that era. Today, however, women are mostly portrayed as sex objects. Unfortunately, many women have internalized these beauty standards and are too focused on "improving" themselves. Whether this makes them happier is another question entirely.
With this color photo series, I want to show how banal and degrading these modern beauty clichés are – clichés that degrade women rather than empower them.
AUTHOR
I was born in 1980 in Riga (Latvia), but since 2010 my place of residence has been in Germany. My creative path started in 1996 when I enrolled in Riga’s Art College – sculpting department. In 2005 I graduated from the Latvian Academy of Arts bachelor’s degree in visual communications and in 2007 completed my master’s degree. However, my interest in photography started in 2001 while studying sculpture and when I bought my first camera. At this point in my life, I suddenly realised that I want explore my creativity in the field of photography. I was always interested in photographing people and reflecting their inner personality and feelings. The knowledge I gained from sculpting and painting is inherent to realising my photography projects. I began my photography route with black and white portraits but with the development of modern digital technologies I focused on colour photography. I am in continuous search of inner and outer beauty which exists in nature and within people. I have a tendency to create an ‘ideal’ world which holds mutual love and respect, nature’s magic and the eternal moment. In addition to my art photography, I work professionally as a commercial photographer. 