Monday, April 15, 2013

The Future of Beauty?

I recently read this article over at The Hoopla in regards to an exhibition by a photographer named Phillip Toledano. Mr Toledano has shot a series entitled ' A New Kind Of Beauty ' in which he has taken portraits of people with extreme plastic surgery. His intention seems to be to explore what beauty means within today's society, and what may be defined as beautiful in the future. I don't want to copy and paste his pictures without permission so please head over to the article or Toledano's own website and have a look, then come back. Go on, I'll wait....

Justin Jedlica is one of those featured in the series

I'm all for diversity in regards to what is beautiful, but I think that is the exact reason why I DON'T find these people beautiful. They all look so very similar - the same full lips, same cat-like eyes, the same narrow nose and sculpted cheekbones. The overtly feminine features on the men does not attract me at all. I know that these people feel that they're beautiful, and as long as they are happy within their own skin then that's what matters. I do feel sad for them though that they couldn't have felt beautiful as they were in the bodies and faces they were born with.

So if this ' sameness ' is where beauty his headed, where being a plastic carbon copy of the person next to you is the future of beauty, count me out. I'd much rather see the beauty in freckles, in crazy curly hair, in breasts that are only a handful and not massive, swollen, melons of rock.

How about you? Do you see beauty in these photographs? Do you think the people in them are representative of what beauty will be in the future?

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11 comments:

  1. I can see the artistic beauty but 'real' beauty? No. I agree. We seem to be wanting to morph into one dull look. Where's the character? Where's the diversity? That's where true beauty lies.

    Popping over for the first time from IBOT x

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    1. I also could see that the photographs themselves were beautiful, but the people in them just made me sad....

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  2. I just don't get it.....what's wrong with a few imperfections?

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    1. Nothing. In terms of media, I actually prefer when a model has a sprinkling of freckles across her nose, or a gap in their teeth like Lara Stone... I find people like that more interesting to look at than cookie-cutter skinny-and-blonde....

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  3. His face just looks all sorts of wrong. I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder! If we are to believe the images we see in magazines/TV he is beautiful but not IRL! Em

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    1. I wonder where these extreme surgery get their idea of what beautiful is?

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  4. I think I'm with you Amy, this is not the kind of beauty I aspire to. Looking at the images I feel sorry for these people, that they felt they weren't good enough the way that they were and needed to change themselves. They do all look strangely the same too.

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    1. Yes, its the carbon copy sameness that disturbs me...

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  5. I've just popped over to the Hoopla page and I think Justin here got off pretty lightly. It wasn't until I read what this post was about that I understood the picture above. Honestly, I didn't think of plastic surgery- I thought of airbrushing, make up, hairstyling and youthful-looking Asian heritage.

    I understand what the photographer is saying, but I truly hope this 'new kind of beauty' is something we never get too used to. I don't mean to be disrespectful but these people might look a bit too alien- after all, what do we mean by the definition 'being human'? #teamIBOT

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    1. I completely agree.... It worries me if this extreme alien sameness is what will be considered the standard of beauty in the future.

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  6. I'm with you and find it sad that we feel the need to change who we are. I think it's normal to look at parts of our bodies and want them to be different, but part of life is learning to be content with the things we don't love, and learn to love them anyway.
    Plus how much pain do these guys go through?

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