Giada Ferrara
Loving Shapes is a photographic series of 19 pictures that both interrogates the current definition of beauty in Western societies and celebrates the diversity of women’s bodies. Promoting a broader concept of beauty is a way to challenge the unrealistic ideals of bodies that women are exposed to across social and mainstream media and popular culture every day. In contrast, Loving Shapes aims to show the reality of different shapes of women’s bodies and celebrate them through the use of nude photography.
This series aims to encapsulate all the things that usually go unseen on social media and mass media by visually provoking the viewer and their often internalised and conditioned understanding of the ideal body type and appearance.
The photographs are close-ups and details of women’s body parts and are purposefully displaying aspects that society would define as imperfections such as cellulite, stretch marks or scars. The collection portrays women between the age of 19 and 60 years old, this choice allow me to show the body in different stages of its existence. Loving Shapes is blurring the boundaries between what people are used to seeing and defining as beautiful and the uniqueness and beauty of real bodies.
There is a need to challenge and unlearn the definition of beauty that has been inculcated in our heads for decades and instead to start promoting a positive and inclusive way of thinking towards the body and the individual itself. The aim of my project is not to develop a new definition as such, but merely to have a more inclusive and broad understanding of beauty.
Many brands and photographers are trying to help dismantle the misrepresentation of women’s bodies and to break down the beauty standards but the reality is that there is still a lot of work to do.
Loving Shapes, therefore, aims to make visible these discrepancies still present in our society and in the representation of women by inviting the viewer to reflect on how the role of social media has influenced our vision of bodies and how to deconstruct it.
Contact Giada Ferrara
- giadaferrara99@gmail.com