BEAUTÉ L’NIGGE
As a practice, I usually don’t talk mention or give energy to things that are ‘outside of my lane’ so to speak.
I also realize that by saying that, I am not absolved from the hypocrisy of making these mock covers of, quite frankly, two of my favorite publications.

With that said, I thought it was interesting, the way we look at beauty.
I called my friend Gaëlle to shoot because I think she has stunning features but I NEVER think I will see a Vogue, Elle or VF cover with a model that looks like her on it.
For a time, people complained that the idea of beauty that we’ve been programmed to buy into was completely Eurocentric, but is that true anymore? The ideas of beauty have been broadened by movements of body positivity, cultural acceptance (& appropriation) and a bit of social awareness. Still… still with all of the progressive advancement, unless one represents something more than the full features that Gaëlle comes with, like director of a hugely impactful movie, courageous actor that has overcome all adversities etc, there is no celebration of “beauty”.

Beauty is subjective but we are given limited choices on what we can find beautiful. (Quite democratic)

I have an art series coming that speaks to these ideas but this decided to manifest in the middle of creating that and so I gave it attention.
Who decides what models should look like? Ultimately, if you plastered someones face on a billboard in Times Square everyday for 12 months, pouring millions of dollars into marketing and advertising their image, wouldn’t just about anyone be perceived as beautiful?

Is beauty what I say it is?

create.