'PRETENTIOUS'

My latest project was my FMP (final major project). For this we were we were given a list of words to choose from on a board in our class room, we then had to choose a way to present our chosen word, the choices were as follows:

Image based Photography or Film

Writing and Layout

Trend Forecasting Look Book

My chosen word was 'Pretentious' and i chose to present this through photography.

For my research I looked at films like Mean Girls and Tv series such as Gossip Girl for inspiration because they are about pretty, Pretentious girls always trying to out-do each other and fit into the crowd etc which is what 'to be Pretentious' means.

I wanted to make my model look like a Barbie doll because they are fake and lots of girls change their images to be fake and to make themselves appear 'perfect' and better.

I thought about using some of the girls from my course to model for me but then I remembered my friend Alannah Spendlove who is the image of Barbie and she loves this fact. So I shot a few simple images of her to look like Barbie:

I then edited them to appear a bit more doll like...

I took these images in for my crit and discussed them with my class and tutors. They were all really amazed at how much my friend really looked like Barbie and that she really believed in this image. My tutor said it would make my work much stronger if I used Alannah for my final images doing things in everyday life dolled up like she always is. So I decided to take some more shots of her doing this, I also edited them and added some quotes from an interview I did with Alannah...

I edited them using Photoshop, changing the brightness and contrast in the photos, I also airbrushed her skin and applied and  a 'poster edges' filter onto her body. I am a bit unsure about the filter though and will probably edit it myself to look 'plastic' instead.

My favourite shot is the one of her sat eating her dinner at the table, I think that one looks the best and really looks like Barbie.