These are the photographs I exhibited in my university degree show - “XV”, as part of Nottingham Trent’s 15th Annual Photography Festival.

“It is unlikely that a women living in contemporary Western society could ignore her physical appearance. If she did, she would be stigmatized as unfeminine or socially unaware.” (Grimlin, D. 2002, pg 4)

Vanity and beauty consumes many women’s lives, taking inspiration from the repetitive imagery around us. Through the work, the sense of surreal but synonymous beauty raises thought in the viewer, urging them to consider how beauty is being portrayed in our image conscious world and whether perhaps it has all gone too far. The word “plastication” has been used by industry professionals when printing commercial portraiture; this work protects this plastic notion of beauty, one which women aspire to, to gauge their own attractiveness.