This project explores contemporary understanding of beauty by using food as a metaphor. As consumers, we are used to seeing countless lavish commercials filled with glimmering objects of desire worn by flawless models. Nature doesn’t know much about standards and aesthetics but same marketing strategies are applied across the board - from picking a right cover girl to picking the prettiest produce. Tomatoes should be “petite”, and all eggs in a carton have to be exactly the same size. This trend eventually resulted in a number of government regulations that permit only certain shapes and sizes of fruits and vegetables, and farmers often have to sort out as much as 30-40% of produce before they can sell it just because it doesn't conform to the standards. The shape of fruit per se doesn't have any direct connection to its nutritional value but we want to believe that prettier foods are somehow better, like we often assume that attractive people, or rather people who were chosen for us as beauty icons, are happier and more successful in life. Food culture in general has always fascinated me, especially when it comes to the arts. Early luscious still life oil paintings were widely criticized by the church because they allegedly provoked unclean thoughts about sensual pleasures. Nowadays, the process of food consumption is nearly glorified in our society but there are even more disturbing aspects to it, such as severe eating disorders of adolescent girls (anorexia for example), whom this project indirectly portrays, and who often have strong reactions to certain foods, being either disgusted or obsessed over them. This twisted emotional connection between a perceived ideal, consumerism, and nature led me to producing a series of studio photographs that reflect on striving for unattainable perfection.
