Contact Dermatitis, 2018

Contact Dermatitis is a series of photographs, inspired by personal events, that attempts to reveal the battle between internal fragmentation to comply with social pressures of ideal beauty standards while suffering the hypocritical physical repercussions these regimes often have on the human body.

The infamous saying “beauty is pain” comes to mind when speaking about my concept; questioning how far certain people would go to fit in with manufactured beauty standards – despite the absurd duality of these beauty products acting as both the enabler and the mask for concealing imperfections.

Skin abrasions, bumps, pimples, eczema and other minor skin infections are the price some of us pay for the superficial façade of being so-called “beautiful”. And this only intensified by a popular culture cheap alternatives and dupe products containing un-identified and dangerous ingredients. Ultimately, acting thrifty can end up costing more in steroid creams, antibiotics and doctors’ visits.

This type of beauty is surface level and I try to portray that idea through a contrast of highly glamorised elements in my photographs, alluding to magazine advertorials and campaigns, that are oddly paired with the somewhat grotesque reality of unedited skin, strange poses and facial expressions.