Feminine Beauty Series

Samuel Gove, 2010

Inspired by the constant change and growth of the American mainstream media’s representation and standards of feminine beauty, this project attempts to juxtapose these ideologies with a more classical and natural form of beauty. Published in magazines, online articles, high fashion blogs, and broadcasted on national television, images in which women are being objectified into “things” of lustful intention and sexual use are igniting a negative connotation of true beauty and sexual deviance within our current time. In this world of human manipulation, false schemas begin to skew the line of respect for women and their own personal beauty. Sex, being the first hand marketing strategy driving behind many large-scale companies and their ad campaigns has been a constant variable in promoting the availability of lustful, pornographic material. Censorship is more removed with each passing year and sexual exploitations have become commonplace in society.

With influence from classical portraiture and baroque styled lighting, each photograph within the series attempts to invite the viewer to simply look. Whether through gesture or a simple connection of gaze the subjects produce their own natural beauty, justified, and respectable.