Following my previous post on Andrew Bush’s “Vector Portraits”, I just came across Shirin Aliabadi’s car series, “Freedom Is Boring, Censorship Is Fun”. In Aliabadi’s pictures, the subjects are young Iranian women who in spite of the oppression of Islam seem to be having a good time. It’s a welcome revision to our view of the Middle East.
Aliabadi’s latest series, “Miss Hybrid”, pokes fun at the current fashion and beauty trends among fashionista Iranians, where the current vogue is for blond hair, light-colored contact lenses, occasional facial piercing and most importantly, surgical nose tape. (It's like the current trend for faux glasses.)
“Miss Hybrid” Aliabadi suggests, should be seen as an alternative beauty manifesto positing that natural beauty is unfair, elitist and irrelevant while artificial beauty and the need to transform into someone else via cosmetic intervention can be regarded as a healthy exercise in cultural rebellion and global integration. Now that's an original and radical concept!
Two pictures from the "Miss Hybrid" series.
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