Another Body Image Issues artist I stumbled upon
was Sheila Pree Bright. She is a Fine Art Photographer based in Atlanta, and
her works are about contemporary culture as in the challenging of perception of
identity in our society today. She is most known for her works that include the
morphing of Barbie dolls and her friends to look more like girls today. The work is called “Plastic Bodies” and looks
at the evolution of Barbie and friends into modern day girls and women, fusing
two images together.
The fusing of the real and unreal or
rather the realistic and unrealistic are amazing. Her Photoshop skills come
into play every time a new image in played on the screen. Sheila calls it
“fragmentation of the bodies of ethnic women to dolls”. Another chilling factor that media influences
on how women and girls begin to see themselves while growing up and playing
with these dolls (if they played with them). They are generalized images of
ethnic women and how they should look: without flaws or as perfect as Barbie
is.
Her images remind me of the nostalgia
of being a kid but that I would refuse the ethnic Barbies. My mind was made up
as a child that being white, skinny, and blonde was true beauty looked like.
Only now that I am an adult and have seen that beauty comes in different
shades, sizes, and hair colors do I know the unrealistic expectations I had
placed on myself as a child because of Barbie. I also do not condone the joy I
felt while playing with them, but rather wish I would have had a broader view
of the world.
http://www.sheilapreebright.com
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