Before & After Part Two

[rug]

The question “what are you?” regularly influences how I experience the world. It serves as a reminder that I am living in a culture that’s still adjusting to my kind of face. Growing up my Japanese mother would often tell me to wear sunblock and to stay out of the sun to avoid getting “too dark”. Being that my father is black, this paradox always troubled me because I was clearly a product of a radical racial union. In these subtle ways I was taught that my natural self did not comply with conventional standards set forth by society, saying fairer skin is better, straighter hair is more attractive, and that skinny tastes good. For that reason I decided to carry out a reproduction of the project Before & After because I wanted to see how a face like mine would be transformed on the digital surgical table.

As in the original project I approached each photoshop aficionado with the request to “make me beautiful.” Similarly I utilized the international freelancing platform, which has allowed me to contract nearly 30 individuals from more than 25 countries.

In contrast to Honig’s results, where her face became a canvas to express more than a dozen contrasting beauty standards, I found that my face actually challenged the application of photoshop in this instance. As a biracial women there is no standard of beauty or mold that can easily fit my face.

http://priscillaywilson.wix.com/priscillayukiwilson/#!blank/c1de8



Priscila Wilson

Go to the link to see what 20 countries think is beauty.

[catrose]

1. That was interesting

No. 2 from the USA was scary looking, but most of the artists made her look a little closer to women from their countries.

[rug]

2. Maybe we just consider the familiar to be beautiful.

[sakabatou]

3. Some look fine, a few... WTF photoshopers?