How much can you focus on a model’s looks before it becomes objectification? One expat photographer is looking to find the answer.
Korea’s increasing number of Photoshop disasters and posters with child-like women with vacant stares has met with some of the criticism common in the West.
But Zachary Westbrook says that there is too much focus on what photographers shouldn’t do.
“It seems to me that the entire conversation is about who is to blame, not how to properly present women,” says Westbrook, who is from the United States and has been in Korea for three years.
“No one (I speak to) has a clear idea what makes one image a beautiful representation of a person and another image a sexual object.”
His “Rescuing Beauty” project aims to explore a variety of concepts: Trying to break the concentration of a model in character to reveal her natural state being of the most interest to him.
Westbrook, who believes in “ethical photoshopping,” says the worst portrayals are in men’s magazines and adverts, where there is less of the characterization you see in more up-market publications.
Zachary Westbrook poses with model Kendra Lee during a shoot in Seoul in October. (Zachary Westbrook)
“I want models to have the same dignity that actors do, praised for their creative skill, not how pretty their plastic surgeon made them,” he says.
At the same time he concedes that even within this framework there is a lot of variation, with some photographers having such strong vision that there is not much room for input from others. In other cases, he says that models often don’t see themselves as creative, although he says the creative ones are more successful.
He has set up a project on Kickstarter to fund the project, asking for $2,750 for props, studio, models and publishing, among other things. He describes the figure as “low-ball.”
“Even if I get full funding, there’s going to be a lot of beg-borrow-and-steal to be done,” he says.
People who pledge over a certain amount will get a copy of his book, among other things.
“My hope is that the book will draw enough attention to get others in the field thinking through the problem and working on their own solutions,” he says.
He argues that grass-roots art is more influential than ever, and that although the use of cheap images was likely to dominate for some time, he hopes for an alternative sub-culture that will eventually become chic.
To find out more about the project, visit http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2016021277/rescuing-beauty.
By Paul Kerry (
paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)
