Sheila Pree Bright

"Bright has said of the series that it “[shows] how the cultural icon of the Barbie has become human and we’ve become plastic.”"
http://www.burnaway.org/2010/07/sheila-pree-bright-at-sandler-hudson-gallery/

Looking through my choices, I found Sheila Pree Bright's photographs especially eye catching. When recreating one of her images, I tried first to make the barbie-like parts using makeup, but I found it did not look as unnatural as I had hoped. So instead, once I uploaded the picture, I digitally altered the face. In Bright's images from "Plastic Bodies", she uses a black backdrop. Her images are also very colorful looking, so the total effect of plasticity is not as prominent in my re-make as it is in her collection. I did try to recapture that unnatural feeling by applying a high contrast to the image.

 During critique, others interpreted this image as being more whimsical than the original photo, but giving off the same idea that the original presents. The hard darkness of the colored eye works well against the subjects soft, light skin. The subject's hair however is covering part of her other eye, preventing a comparison between the two eyes. If I were to change this image, I would take another portrait with both eyes showing and I would use more lighting for the right side of her face, showing the eye even more. Perhaps it would be a good idea to even have the subject open her real eye, so one could compare both the drawn on and the real eye.

Original Image

"Plastic Bodies Series ",
9 in w. x 11 in. h.
Silver Gelatin Print
2004