The Guiding Light

The Guiding Light

    In The Guiding Light I have transposed golden halos onto the images of fashion models. Along with the brilliant shimmering halos are muted colour palettes and transcendental poses reminiscent of early Byzantine icons.

    In The Guiding Light, I am attempting to demonstrate how seemingly unrelated institutions of different times both use similar techniques of visual persuasion. Religious icon paintings were, at a time, the most prevalent images in western societies, while today some of the most prevalent images are commercial advertisements. In both cases I find the images to be persuasive, influential, use comparable methods of emphasizing perfection and often insinuate the promise of something better.

    In these works form The Guiding Light I chose to use images from highly visible fashion advertisements such as Dior, Armani, Burberry, and Louis Vuitton, because I find they are the most suggestive, persuasive and iconic imagery today. In addition, luxury fashion advertising bears the closest likeness to iconic paintings, both demonstrating elements of unnatural poses and ethereally perfected persons.

    This series of work is an also in part an effort to reveal some of the values born of capitalist societies and intends to provide a platform for recognizing the influential power of ideals propagated through imagery. Persuasive imagery has been used throughout history and I believe it to serve as a reflection of our a society's values, hopes and dreams.