Abstract
The paper considers the popularisation of camera and social computing applications that alter the photographic image in a predisposed manner. Beautifying filters have been criticised and appreciated for the body image aesthetics they promote. Critics have been sceptical of the standards of beauty they promote – often pale, fair, clear skin and skinnier physiques. Conversely, users have appreciated the cosmetic alterations that make them look leaner, fairer or blemish free. As cultural products of the global north, they create unique sociocultural interventions in the global south. Most filters exhibit a definite racial affinity where they standardise for the moral and aesthetical frameworks laid down by the North, universalising them. Such standardisations and universalisations in the context of racially incongruent perspectives and algorithms becoming bearers that politics of divide through its codes pose the question of technological mediation of the resultant visual culture where in the self and the image of the self is to be looked at. These mutations and dissonances not only form archives of modified visual culture but also redefine the frameworks of Southern aestheticisms. The complex interplay between the enfranchising and empowering functions of the culture industry and its potential to breed deep ethnic and cultural conflicts alongside mechanisms of construction, normalisation and perpetuation of the concept of beauty, which has been ingrained in the socio-cultural milieu under review, will be explored. The study is ethnographic, exploratory and idiographic in nature. The images are analysed qualitatively, emphasising the thematic background and ideological frameworks.
Presenters
Sujith GopinathanAssistant Professor, Fashion Communication, National Institute of Fashion Technology, Andhra Pradesh, India
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Photography, Images, Selfies, Beautifying Filters, Social Media, Cultural Imperialism
