From May 21st - November 27, the Annenberg is hosting the
Beauty Culture photography exhibition featuring a
compilation of over 100 famous photographer’s pictures of
famous models, actors, sex symbols and more. Their work conveys
the way celebrities have placed their mark on culture by creating
the concept of beauty as we know it. The photos are oftentimes
taken from ads for companies like Chanel or may have been used in
magazine articles, projects, movie posters or simply for the sake
of art in capturing beauty itself.
The moment a person walks in, one of the first things she sees is
a photo of five beautiful nude models forming a cluster. A little
further next to that photo is one of five other nude women in the
same pose with the only difference being…they are obese.
With this bold move, the exhibition sets the mood right away for
what it is about: using photography in unconventional ways to
challenge these constructed notions of beauty.
The exhibition centers around the way photography expresses
beauty and how this has created standards that have shaped
societies’ conception of beauty. Then it takes it a step
further by portraying the impact these constructed standards have
had on millions of women around the world.
In addition, it tackles with how beauty has become a
multi-billion dollar industry by utilizing today’s consumer
culture to create a demand for new and otherwise unnecessary
products and services. By constantly changing beauty trends, this
industry is able to generate new supply and demand cycles for
different products, especially in many advanced capitalist
societies.
In its layout the exhibition it is made up of different sections,
each dealing with a different theme found within “The
Beauty Culture.” Some examples are “The Pin Up
Girl,” “The Model Industry,” “The
Cosmetic Industry,” “The Marylin Syndrome,”
“Is Size a Beauty?” and “Is Color a
Beauty?” So for instance, “The Marylin
Syndrome” conveys the use of actresses as sex symbols and
symbols of ideal beauty, while “Is Color a Beauty?”
exposes the reality of how race plays a detrimental role in
whether one is perceived as beautiful or not by mainstream
society.
Patrick Demarchelier’s exquisitely colorful depiction of
the Chinese supermodel Du Juan, Ellen Von Unwerth’s
stylized and vivid hair salon scene called “The Eccentric
Ones” and Maiko’s captivating “Geisha”
are only a few of the hundreds of uniquely eye-capturing
photos. The works featured, among other things, also celebrate beauty,
like in the case of Albert Watson’s Warris Derrie (Desert
Flower) photo. This photo praises how the beauty industry has
helped a woman escape the harsh conditions of her country to find
a better life full of fame and glory.
In addition, the exhibition includes a “Digital
Gallery,” which features a short documentary that expands
on the exhibition’s themes of beauty as a culture and an
industry. A key idea in the documentary is how technology today,
such as Photoshop, has raised the standards of beauty to
unprecedented and implausible heights creating an unattainable
illusion. This has many implications, such as in contributing to
the development of eating disorders that affect many young women
today. The documentary also presents different views on the
notion of beauty. For instance, Jamie Lee Curtis believes that
beauty lies in simplicity and being natural, while Cindy Margolis
believes it is merely a constructed fantasy.
The Beauty Culture photography exhibition is an
eye-opening experience that challenges its audience by making it
question its views on beauty and ponder on how this has had an
effect on their lives. Finally, the exhibition makes people
realize “photography’s undeniable influence on
conceptions of the self” and how beauty is nothing but a
constructed concept.
The Annenberg Space
for Photography
Century Park, 2000 Avenue of the Stars, #10, Los
Angeles, CA 90067, tel: 213.403.3000
© 2011, The Hollywood Sentinel