Vanity

Pamela Anderson "Miracle Tan Booth"

The world has become obsessed with image and vanity. Vanity can be described as self obsession in one's own image and achievements. Through this we have gotten confused with what beauty really is and have become a nation obsessed with trying to appear like the digitally enhanced models and celebrities we see portrayed by the media.

This is a photo of Pamela Anderson in a tanning booth. The image was shot from a low angle maybe to illustrate or mimic how some people look up and idealise this type of appearance, and strive to replicate it. In this photograph Anderson shows how false beauty has become. She is sprayed with fake tan and it is dripping down her legs, her hair is bleached blonde, her body shape is distorted like a plastic 'Barbie' doll, her smile is completely forced and unnatural. Everything is made to seem false about this photograph. I feel LaChapelle is trying to convey how the female form has been transformed by modern ideals of what beauty really is? Plastic surgery and the other extreme methods women use to remain beautiful and youthful, is a common topic of debate.


'A women’s presence expresses her own attitude to herself, and defines what can and cannot be done to her. Her presence is manifested in her gesture, voice, opinions, expressions, clothes, chosen surroundings, taste indeed there is nothing she can do which does not contribute to her presence.' John Berger, Ways of Seeing