Mirror

With capitalism itself, femininity became largely a matter of construction. Body became a commodity, supported by the body-maintenance industry. Beauty, fitness and speacially youth become exchangeble values and started to function as currency in Western societies (Wolf, 1991). Women are persuaded to devote their energies in order to meet the normalised ideals of body image, failure to meet this criteria of "normalized body" is a sign of the inadequacy of the self (Bordo, 1993). Even though body ideals are not of their own making (Currie, 1997), women are still able to operate within body culture in such a way as to maximize or minimize its potential (Reisher and Koo, 2004).

The internalization of the beauty ideals has made western women struggle to avoid ageing in a attempt to preserve their individuality and self value. Each women holds idealized beauty standards based on cultural and social values related to a certain historical period, against which she measures her appearance. We feel a need to belong, to have a social place; it can be hard to find. Instead we may be given an imaginary one.

The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe. In the middle ages men believed in the physical existence of hell, the sight of fire must have meant something different from what it mean today. (Berger 1972 p.8). This series question the contemporary way women are portrayed and perceived in western society. What is normal? Each portrait, with the help of post production, shows a aged face on a young body.