London based photography Phillip Toledano, considers himself a conceptual artist who gained his artistic education from his father who was a full time artist. As an artist who delves into socio-political and "deeply personal" subjects, Toledano's A New Kind of Beauty series is no different. In this photo series Toledano has various subjects sit scantily clad, revealing the extreme plastic surgery which they have turned to in search of beauty. He lights his subjects in Caravaggio-like lighting, and they look as though they have been literally sculpted. Some are well known reality TV personalities and others are a few of the millions of anonymous mortals who turn to the knife in search of some phantasmic standard of perfection and beauty.
In this series Toledano explores how once in the eye of the beholder, beauty is now somewhat in the hand of the beholder, with the accessibility of countless plastic surgeons as well as some of the most bizarre procedures available, one can literally mold themselves into whatever they can conceive. Toledano poses the question, "When we remake ourselves, are we revealing who we really are or are we stripping away our very identity"? Since beauty has always been a sort of cultural currency, this series and the mere numbers of people going under the knife, all for the sake of "beauty" it's interesting to visualize what parts of the human anatomy are deemed important to each individual.
I like the quality of the light in Toledano's series as it's both mysterious and revealing. It's also a bit melancholy and despise all the effort, none of the subjects has a joyous expression. Changing the outside easier than changing the inside. It kind of saddens me that as whole culture we are more obsessed with how others perceive us and the size of our breast than the number of homeless/starving in our own backyards. Unfortunately, the majority of us are born into the age of mass media, instant gratification, social media and are all subconsciously victim to the propaganda that more beautiful is better. Perhaps if this currency weren't so high, millions wouldn't pay the steep price of their uniqueness. It makes me wonder if before mass media, if self-esteem was higher? You were just born with what you had and you dealt with it and moved on, for there were more pressing matters than Likes on your Instagram feed.
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