Beauty CULTure

I'm really interested in the way beauty is portrayed though different time periods and the effects  images can have. The Exhibit Beauty Culture once at the Annenberg Space for Photography in LA, looks at photography's role in our understanding of beauty, perpetuating stereotypes and how these images can be both celebrated and also destructive. It also shows how the notions of what is beautiful have evolved through the 20th and 21st century. This directly relates to one of my potential thesis topics. By looking at photos of women who are truly beautiful (as in one that shows a woman who lost a breast to cancer) while also looking at child pageants, it gives a very multidimensional look at beauty and how society defines it. 


Here is a link for a summary of the exhibit:
http://www.annenbergspaceforphotography.org/exhibition/beauty-culture

Here is the link that has a gallery of many of the pictures used in the exhibit.
http://www.annenbergspaceforphotography.org/slideshow/beauty-culture

Here is a link that has some of the audio dialogue that went with the picture.
http://www.annenbergspaceforphotography.org/exhibition/beauty-culture/video-tour

Here is the trailer for the exhibit.
http://www.annenbergspaceforphotography.org/video-gallery/beauty-culture

It's really amazing that so much of the exhibit is available for free online. To me it really shows that the gallery believes in its mission even when no longer displayed.