I have been researching 1930s – 1940s beauty gadgets and procedures relating to my university project. I have been fascinated by old fashioned beauty gadgets, many of which look like torture methods. I had planned to do a photoshoot with a vintage face mask I had ordered online however it never turned up. Instead I have been trying to improvise with photoshoot using other objects. One of my close friends does fencing as a sport, whist I was at her house I saw her structured fencing bra made from white plastic which I thought could be a relevant to use instead for my project. My idea behind creating these shoots are that these items which look completley uncomfortable & something you would not want on ‘the body’ are actually designed to help the body or ‘improve’ the body.

This bra is designed as a protection when playing sports such as fencing, however looks like it could be extremely uncomfortable so I thought it would be interesting to do a shoot using harmless objects that look scary such as this as a representation of irrational fear. Irrational fear is often based upon a feeling that has come out of nowhere and developed into something more than it really is like an obsession, the feeling can be very strong and often takes over the reality of the situation.

I decided to use a male model for this photoshoot as I thought it would be interesting to remove gender roles around the object (bra) and see it in a different form. I styled the model in an oversized black suit with only the object underneith as I have been looking at the body I thought it was important for it to have contact with the skin.

I thought it would be interesting to incorporate shadows into this photoshoot to reinforce this idea of irrational fear ‘at the back of the mind always’ following an individual around like a shadow.

Some of these images are not the quality I was hoping for as I have had to improvise with lighting and location due to the covid19 virus meaning I have had to carry out these shoots in my small bedroom, if I could have used the studio and if I had had more space I feel I would have been able to experiment further.

I decided to edit all the images into black and white as I feel my work looks better with the eery and dark theme to go with my project so far. They also look better in black and white due to my bad lighting situation. I may try and recreate this shoot if I have some more time.