The Art of DeTouch

The Art of DeTouch is a really neat website that shows the steps taken to enhance photos of models and public figures. It has pictures of models, singers, and even public figures. It shows the original image and the steps taken to enhance that image in photoshop or other programs. The site shows how every imperfection is fixed and changed so that the picture comes out perfect. Not only do they retouch skin imperfections but they also change proportions. They actually go in and electronically fix proportions of the body, making models skinnier and boobs bigger.

I really appreciated this site because it showed what these public figures and models really look like. Not everyone looks as perfect as they appear in magazines. This site showed the steps taken to achieve these unrealistic perfect looks. Most women do have stretch marks, cellulite, and imperfect skin, but we never get to see that in public images. Not all men have perfect abs and a perfect skin tone. A lot o them in fact, have only digital abs. I really liked this website and I think that if more people looked at it then a lot of self esteem issues would be resolved.

Maryiln Minter Billboards

During March three enormous billboards took over the streets in Chelsea. The New York artist, Marilyn Minter, had taken high fashion shots for magazines. She then transformed these glamorous images into messy, more human images. The original images were of perfectly manicured feet in gorgeous name brand shoes. She took those pictures and splattered them with mud and grime. She did three of these, Shit-Kicker, Splish Splash and Runs, and Mud Bath.

I felt that this project was effective and where she placed it was smart also. New York is notorious for its high fashion and runway shoes. She took the name brand shoe out of that high fashion world and placed it in the real world that is not all glitz and glamor. I understood her message even without reading the description and think she did a successful job in photoshop. It really looks like she took the picture that way. It also brings attention to why people are so hung up on these name brand objects in the real world when they don't look the same as in the glamor/fashion world. A pair of Prada shoes in mud doesn't look much better than a pair of PayLess shoes in mud.

subervitisement

Procrastination 3

I edited a play station ad to say procrastination instead and i placed in the common area of a dorm. I put one on the huge t.v. and one on the event board by the t.v.

Bratz Vs Barbie

Bratz Vs Barbie is a photography series by Jill Greenberg. Jill is a very well known photographer who tackles subjects that most people ignore. This particular image is just one from the series. She took a children's idol and a very well known image and turned it into something completely different and more realistic. She took Barbie out of the fake environment in which she was created and placed her in reality. In stead of simply changing Barbie's appearance, she gave her a black eye. She is bringing to light issues such as abuse and violence. Problems we often face in the real world.

I came across the image on accident and after doing some research on the photographer and the series, I found it quite intriguing. Her series also went along with my final project about self image and gave me another perspective on it. Children grow up on Barbie with her perfect features and her perfect world and its hard for them to draw the line between that fantasy world of Barbie and the real world. Greenberg aslo touches on other children's dolls such as Bratz Dollz. Although they are not as perfect as Barbie, they still have a particular image that just is not reality. 

I Wish I Was Born in a Hollywood Movie

I Wish I Was Born in a Hollywood Movie is a site created by Maja Bajevic. Maja's work often deals with the boundary between what is public or advertised and what is private. This particular site is her first piece that uses the web as her medium. She addresses the Hollywood "dream machine" and how the scenes we are exposed to in Hollywood affect us. She explores how the glamorized representation of reality is portrayed in movies and compares it to actual reality. The site displays photos Maja took in Mexico City, Paris, Venice, and other places. Then it shows images found in tourist brochures, movies, and etc.

At first I was confused when I viewed the project because you cannot really distinguish which images she took and which images are from other sources. They are not really organized in any particular order and they are not still images. If you click on an image another series of images pops up. The random order at which this was arranged confused me. After thinking about it and exploring the project further, I started to understand her reasoning behind this more. Her objective was not to show the public images and compare them to the real images. Instead, she was showing how the line between the two is so blurred that it is sometimes hard to distinguish which is which.

banksy.co.uk

Banksy is a website full of quirky artwork. The site shows artwork that portrays a comical or sarcastic point of view to some of the problems in our society. It consists of three parts: outside works, inside works, and a shop page. Both the outside and inside pieces mock certain aspects of todays society such as corporations, classes, government, the police force, and many others. Each image is threw the eyes of the artist and refers to different subject matters.

A lot of the pieces on this site played with how corporations and government are viewed. One image was of a government meeting, but in place of government officials, the artist placed monkeys. The one that I found most interesting was a black and white image. It consisted of a huge Mickey Mouse and a huge Ronald McDonald holding both hands of a naked, crying little girl. Mickey and Ronald are smiling and cheerful while this poor child is clearly suffering. This image stuck out to me because both of these figures are meant to make children happy. Maybe here in the U.S. a mouse and a clown can lift our children's spirits, but they don't do much to help the children who have nothing in underdeveloped countries., some of which work for their corporations.