Shirlaine Forrest
F
ACT: Over amillion people in the UK have anorexia. Twenty percent of them will die as a direct result. Manchester- based music, fashion and portrait photographer Shirlaine
Forrest (36) has been shooting both video film and photographs for the past fifteen years – and focused sizeable chunks of the last seven on the research of eating disorders, body dysmorphia and self-harming.
So intense is her passion for this subject (by the way, she describes herself as a ’junk food vegan’) she has produced a book: Self: photographing eating disorders, which she describes as ‘an exploration into the very complex motivations and mindset of those suffering’.
And it’s all something of a dichotomy. She’s a fashion photographer, often working with very skinny models and yet constantly involved in post- production retouching work. She says: “As a photographer I’m constantly asked to book extremely slimmodels and retouch any ‘flaws’ in post production. “I find the idea of making everyone look picture-perfect a sensitive matter, mainly because I havewatched friends battlewith eating disorders all through college and university. So now, after helping both myself and others through eating disorder issues I now find myself in conflict with my work. Everyone should know that a certain creative license is in play when a photographer creates a so-called ‘perfect’ image - and although the models are beautiful, they are also professionals in presentation, which, combined with digital airbrushing, can read as a so-called ‘ideal’ image.
‘Inmy view it’s vital that we acknowledge
when retouching has taken place’
Model: Ebishu
www.bowens.co.uk 19
Make-up: Andrea Perry-Bevan
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36