As part of my Journalism course we were looking at different magazines that were out there. Someone brought in a copy of Vogue with the accompanying cover. Whilst I agreed with the women that it was a striking image, my first thought on seeing it was that it was obviously faked. Check out the size of her torso compared to those infinite legs.
The women in my group were complementary on my astuteness, although I'd imagine most men would see it given that we probably look at more women than most ladies do. I'm not sure if "Men's" magazines still distort images of women regularly, as I'm bored by anything that pushes masturbation as a viable lifestyle choice, but I remember it being vaguely scandalous when Kate Winslet got her legs shooped back in the 90s.
Aside from the rather obvious point about creating unrealistic expectations for women to measure up to, what attracted my attention was that this has the same effect as foreshortening. That is, this kind of technique would normally be applied to a painting hung high above the viewer to make it look more realistic. In the visual language we all imbibe, if not explicitly, this image is literally looking down on you.
The women in my group were complementary on my astuteness, although I'd imagine most men would see it given that we probably look at more women than most ladies do. I'm not sure if "Men's" magazines still distort images of women regularly, as I'm bored by anything that pushes masturbation as a viable lifestyle choice, but I remember it being vaguely scandalous when Kate Winslet got her legs shooped back in the 90s.
Aside from the rather obvious point about creating unrealistic expectations for women to measure up to, what attracted my attention was that this has the same effect as foreshortening. That is, this kind of technique would normally be applied to a painting hung high above the viewer to make it look more realistic. In the visual language we all imbibe, if not explicitly, this image is literally looking down on you.
RSS Feed
