Societal Situations

 

44" x 39"

Ink Jet Print

2014

 

Being someone that notices the small things in everyday life, I cannot help but compare the similarities and differences in people, events and objects that I see dialy. A college campus is a concentrated sample of trends, personalities and interests of young adults. Shrinking that sample to just women, the act of comparing and contrasting them is inevitable.

 

The inspiration for my last project was when I noticed the differences in how young men and women change their appearance throughout the week. For this project, I wanted to expand that idea by concentrating on how women change their look throughout the day. I've noticed that throughout the day, I change my appearance depending on what situation I'm going to be in. Knowing that I am not alone in this, I decided to photograph five girls and what they wear for the three most common situations encountered during the day: class, exercise and studying. I organized the photos into three rows, for each situation, and followed the same order which I put the girls. Comparing the five photos for each situation, it can be see that there is a "normal" way to dress for each occasion. Then, looking at one girl in three situations shows the social rules of how to present one's self under varying circumstances.

 

Next to the typology, I placed three advertisements for clothes that would be worn for these three different situations: H&M for class, Lululemon for exercise and American Apparel for study. In the advertisements, I whited out the models and just kept the clothes, stating the "this could be you" idea advertisements use all the time. By placing these advertisements next to a typology of five girls dressed very similarly on three different instances, it brings up the ideas of consumerism and conformity and the effectiveness of advertisements.