Kornelia Swieczka

Photographs within social media and advertising can misrepresent and manipulate people. We turn on our phones and are bombarded with public figures who don’t represent the average person. The images we see are created by professional photographers who use flattering light set ups, makeup artists who are able to make skin look flawless, hair stylists who can make hair look full and healthy, and overall, these images are usually retouched to crazy lengths. This can have a negative effect and often makes people think that they must look like that to be considered beautiful. This photo series is made up of simple, natural portraits that are manipulated in photoshop to create a representation of what society’s standards and expectations of beauty are. Some of the models’ facial features are replaced with cut-outs from magazines and images from social media. The use of highly photoshopped and retouched images is to show the contrast between what people actually look like, and what people are manipulated into thinking they should look like.