Styled Life
As a child, I recall hours of thumbing through catalogs and fashion magazines, enamored with the pictures of beautiful people and merchandise. With fascination, I learned the values and behaviors I believed were necessary to become a desirable, feminine woman. I quickly discovered expectations that were impossible to achieve. In a culture that worships material beauty, these fashion images merely imply authenticity; thus creating an identity based on conformity that once constructed, is mindlessly consumed. In the series Styled Life, I have altered and re-photographed these catalog pages with the intention of interrogating the original purpose these images present – the myth that consumer goods hold the promise of happiness, self-worth and most importantly, social status.
