Ad Buster -Jeans

The advertisement that I chose to work with was an ad for Calvin Klein Jeans. The original advertisement shows a picture of a thin, topless, glossy woman against a wall. The message being put forth is that the jeans are all you need to look so hot that you sweat. The target audience of this ad is females between 18 and 30. The ad tries to exploit desire and lust to the viewer; this can be seen in the facial features of the girl in the original advertisement. This desire for the perfect, sexy, thin, glossy body has become a cliché in advertisements. 

I chose to change this advertisement to show that so often people try to squeeze into jeans that are too tight. I feel that this desire to fit into smaller and tighter jeans is to try and obtain the ideal body as depicted in the media and in advertisements. The revised ad shows the reality of the jeans; your legs look great but the rest of your body is not going to be perfect just because of the jeans. The new advertisement is also focusing on the fact that jeans that are too tight do other strange things to your body. This revised ad is also changing the audience to both men and women because there is no person in the new advertisement. I tried to make the ad more focused on the strange things that squeezing into jeans, or other clothing, that are too tight rather than pointing fun.

The Ideal Body - Project 3

My exploration of the body in photography is looking at how the body is viewed. We often immediately look for faults in any body that is photographed. People are always so quick to say he could be stronger or she could be thinner rather than look at the body as an art form. I wanted to explore this need to find faults in body images. I began by collecting a large group of ‘ideal’ images and reviewing them for faults. I then had some friends look at the images and point out the first major fault they saw in each. I tried to combine the different images to substitute in for faults that were pointed out. These ‘ideal’ body images can only be created by combining many other photographs of different bodies. This is interesting because I was unable to find an image of an ideal body without any faults, yet this ideal body image is so highly coveted.

I tried to use different elements from each of the images that slightly represented fetishism for that image. I combined all of these parts to make one ideal image that has very few faults. I was interested in exploring this area of the ideal image after looking at Nancy Biurson’s work and how she combined images of others. I was also interested in exploring this because I feel that when we view an image of the body we subconsciously identify something good about body pictured and something that is less than ideal. The images produced are not the ideal body image that everyone perceives, instead the ideal body image that the media tries to produce and make us accept. The images created could not created form just one person because this ideal image that is perceived by the media is never satisfied with what is offered.

Documentary Project

Forest fires can be devastating to the areas they burn, but the forest will heal itself. The Bullock fire spread over Mt. Lemmon in May of 2002 and cost over $13 million to contain. After destroying 30,000 acres of forest the landscape is scarred. Nine years after the fire, the forest is beginning to repair itself. Dead trees stand next to new life in the forest. Areas of the burned landscape have becoming green again. New life has begun in this desolate landscape and is beginning to overshadow the devastation. Although forest fires are destructive, they give the burned area a second chance to flourish. These burned areas will always show their scar from the fire and trees that survived will proudly show their burned bark for years to come.