Tag Archives: Childhood games

Doll House

Often the lives in dollhouses were more magnificent than the homes of wealthy Victorians.  The currency of wealth was symbolised by the glory of the dollhouses contained in a household. This is the reason why several dollhouses exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green was the backdrop for the fashion editorial I shot for my Digital Manipulation Unit as part of my Diploma in Kensington and Chelsea College.

Several rooms of many dollhouses were photographed, a task that proved to be tricky as they were all behind glass and very low lit.  To match the glory of the featured rooms, current couture clothing advertised in fashion magazines were scanned to later be digitally worn by my model Indre Marc.

Each photograph is a composite of at least 3 images- 2 photographed by me and 1 scanned from magazines.  Whilst doing this was good to teach me more editing techniques, ethically I would prefer to have my beautiful model wearing the clothes. The life in dollhouses is an idea I would like to revisit but perhaps with a concept that is less commercial.

 

The Ugly Pretty, The Pretty Ugly and Everything in between

 

Lidya-2

Lidya

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are we obsessed with the word PRETTY? Am I pretty? Is she pretty?  Is he pretty?  Is it pretty? Are we all pretty?

Pretty… Pretty…Pretty…

The more I type the word pretty, the more it feels like I misspelled it, but my trusted spellcheck would tell me if I had.

During my extended Turkish summer I learnt a new game called “Güzellik mi Çirkinlik mi?” which translates roughly as Beauty or Ugliness.  My father explained how the game worked, and I know you may think it is weird to learn this from your father at the age of 27 but in my defence one of our key players was my 4-year-old niece Lidya.

The rules were easy: if you are chosen to go first, you decide to either ask to see everyone do a “pretty” face or an “ugly” one.  Then you choose the person that you think embodied the expression the best, and then it is their turn to either make everyone pretty or ugly.

I really doubt that guidance counselors or child psychologists would recommend this game, but to be honest playing it with someone so young and less exposed to media and social norms was very revealing.

We form an idea of what is attractive and what is not very early on, and these ideas are very resistant to time and age. The 56-year-old granddad, the 27-year-old uncle, the 4-year-old girl and any other willing souls, all pulled similar expressions.

I still think that I had the ugliest face in the game but that will never ever be published on this blog (also my camera-phobic family would not take the photo).

Then again, never say never.