In this piece i look at the power of vanity using just a few select people. These people are my friends, the people i live with. I have chosen to look at these people as i know them extremly well and this should come across in the images i have produced. These subjects i have asked to photograph in the clothes they wear around the house and what they wear when on show to the public on a night out.
Vanity is a part of everyday life whether you like it or not, the need to dress up for the general public, people that you dont even know has never been more apparent than in todays society. This is a power built up over the years by the media and by others. By expecting people to present themselves in a respectable way we have tunnel visioned ourselves to “look good” in such a way that a human being can be critisied on what he or she is wearing and therefore foggeting the real important things in life. If a person is to go against the “norm” they are immediately portrayed to the public as strange, out of the ordinary something that society has taught us over the years we do not want to be.
I think by looking at such a close proximity of friends we get to see how this does truely effect the masses. The way in which the subjects appear in the different images is different which on its own represents how people do make an effort when on show to others they do not know in fear of being judged. In addition to this we may see a change in pose for the image creating a different narrative. This being the notion of how the individual feels, is he/ she more confident when wearing something “acceptable” to our society, consumerism tells the subject they are correct making them more confident and powerful in his/ her own personal state.
A way in which this could be extended is to look at just how people appear on a night out. An example of how I could look at this is to photograph people with a studio type of background accompanied by sounds of the events going on in the club at the same time. By photographing people with a background like this I would expect them to act very differently as to in the club, the idea is to present how being put in front of a camera in a situation like this makes you act in certain ways as apposed to in a club where your friends are taking snapshots of one another. Some people would thrive of this and act up and some may calm down and try to appear sober for example, I feel this would be interesting as it would explore vanity not only through appearance but the act in front of a camera.
