Make Me Beautiful
I grew up witnessing the burgeoning cosmetic surgery industry. Reports of millions in China seeking aesthetic transformations left me feeling deeply connected, as I grew up surrounded by judgements about my appearance. I turned to photography as a means to confront my anxieties about my looks, the societal beauty ideals, and explore the mechanisms behind the cosmetic surgery scene in China.
I went to over 30 cosmetic surgery clinics with my self portrait, and asked the 'beauty designers' there to scrutinize my face and map out surgery plans on my portrait. They meticulously pointed out my "flaws", while sometimes letting me choose from the most popular prototypes of faces I want to have, like choosing products from a shelf. They told me face is a "permit" to my dream life. I smelled my desires and weaknesses.
The work is composed of the diagnoses of my face, cosmetic surgery landscape, and recreation of pre-surgery portraits of people who have had cosmetic surgeries, taken by clinics and posted on cosmetic surgery portal websites as a promotion. I found myself deeply intrigued by these portraits. Despite being taken in an objective manner, they reveal to me a mixture of feelings from melancholy to puzzlement, hope, restlessness, determination, nostalgia…They remind me of death masks, post-mortem photography, or any photograph that hints at a moment of death.
生于九十年代的我,在成长过程中见证了整形产业的兴起,也经历过无数次外貌评判。它们在我心里种下了一个种子,2018年,出于一丝想要自我实验的心态,以及对医美整形产业背后运作机制的好奇,我开始我开始以影像为媒介探究这一议题。
我拿着自己的肖像照去不同的诊所寻求诊断,让“美丽设计师”们在我的脸上画下诊断和”治疗“方案。除了指出我的种种”缺陷“外,她/他们提出了不同方案的选项,供我随意挑选,像在货架上挑选商品一样,并通过精心设计的话术,暗示我一张全新的脸将会赋予我的理想人生。我嗅到了自己在强大的消费主义逻辑下的欲望和脆弱。
在和诊所“合作”完成肖像之余,我拍摄了整形医院的室内景观。除此之外,我收集了医美网站案例的“整形前”照片,移除了网站的水印,又用刀子对肖像做了处理。最后为这些肖像配上了我手写的在网络上收集的、来自整形者的感想。其中既有真实的感想,也有医美网站上看似感想的营销话术片段。这些“整形前”照片令我想到死亡面具和19世纪的死后摄影,甚至是所有照片——在拍摄的瞬间就意味着这一瞬间的逝去。
Make Me Beautiful
I grew up witnessing the burgeoning cosmetic surgery industry. Reports of millions in China seeking aesthetic transformations left me feeling deeply connected, as I grew up surrounded by judgements about my appearance. I turned to photography as a means to confront my anxieties about my looks, the societal beauty ideals, and explore the mechanisms behind the cosmetic surgery scene in China.
I went to over 30 cosmetic surgery clinics with my self portrait, and asked the 'beauty designers' there to scrutinize my face and map out surgery plans on my portrait. They meticulously pointed out my "flaws", while sometimes letting me choose from the most popular prototypes of faces I want to have, like choosing products from a shelf. They told me face is a "permit" to my dream life. I smelled my desires and weaknesses.
The work is composed of the diagnoses of my face, cosmetic surgery landscape, and recreation of pre-surgery portraits of people who have had cosmetic surgeries, taken by clinics and posted on cosmetic surgery portal websites as a promotion. I found myself deeply intrigued by these portraits. Despite being taken in an objective manner, they reveal to me a mixture of feelings from melancholy to puzzlement, hope, restlessness, determination, nostalgia…They remind me of death masks, post-mortem photography, or any photograph that hints at a moment of death.
生于九十年代的我,在成长过程中见证了整形产业的兴起,也经历过无数次外貌评判。它们在我心里种下了一个种子,2018年,出于一丝想要自我实验的心态,以及对医美整形产业背后运作机制的好奇,我开始我开始以影像为媒介探究这一议题。
我拿着自己的肖像照去不同的诊所寻求诊断,让“美丽设计师”们在我的脸上画下诊断和”治疗“方案。除了指出我的种种”缺陷“外,她/他们提出了不同方案的选项,供我随意挑选,像在货架上挑选商品一样,并通过精心设计的话术,暗示我一张全新的脸将会赋予我的理想人生。我嗅到了自己在强大的消费主义逻辑下的欲望和脆弱。
在和诊所“合作”完成肖像之余,我拍摄了整形医院的室内景观。除此之外,我收集了医美网站案例的“整形前”照片,移除了网站的水印,又用刀子对肖像做了处理。最后为这些肖像配上了我手写的在网络上收集的、来自整形者的感想。其中既有真实的感想,也有医美网站上看似感想的营销话术片段。这些“整形前”照片令我想到死亡面具和19世纪的死后摄影,甚至是所有照片——在拍摄的瞬间就意味着这一瞬间的逝去。