Man, I feel like a Woman!

These images present a visualisation of the way in which, over time, we decorate and alter our form in order to express our inner selves and succumb to outer gaze. Throughout our lives we adjust our physicality and digital presence, to present an image of who we want to be and who we are inside.

This series of images play into themes of body, self and expression. Inspired by Shylock’s infamous request in Shakespeare’s ‘A Merchant of Venice,’ I imagined the body as a “pound of flesh,” presenting a timeline as the subject is moulded through different physical stages.

I was also largely inspired a Tracy Cox poem, in which she writes: “Your weight fluctuations, in every iteration, are deeply human, and absolutely devoid of moral implication.” This poem really spoke to me, as throughout my life I have had a complicated relationship with my body and sense of self. To be able to interpret and analyse these feelings visually, thinking of our bodies as pieces of clay that we mould and change throughout our lives, aided in a creative release of some of these feelings.  

Allowing the model to style herself, the subject becomes an exaggerated representation of her own inner sense of self. The last image is a flux of Facetune, representing how we express ourselves and alter perceptions on a digital platform, which is something that most of us can relate to.