David Kretschmer - Anton

Mirrors Statement

 ~Looking in a mirror is one of the most intimate moments for people. You open yourself, observe your appearance, your face, every little wrinkle and flaw. Unconsciously you start a kind of conversation with your mirror image. But this conversation could never be objective as every person sees a contrast between the mirror image and the image they have in mind. So every minor deviation these two images have is a reason to doubt and to complain about. The paradoxical on this is, that the prettier a person is the more she complains. The closer they are to perfection the fussier they get. The smallest pimple in a young girls face is an essential flaw whereas a deep scar in the face of an old man is a sign for experience and boldness.

The Series shows this contradictory view on beauty the society has in perfection. Four beautiful young girls, looking very doubting and insecure. As they are almost perfect looking, they observe themselves very strict and criticize every single flaw on their body and face. The four guys are in complete contrast to the girls. They are not perfect at all but they look very confident at themselves and don‘t care about any beauty ideals. They are not pristine but they are satisfied.

 The observer shares a very intimate moment with an unknown person and turns into a voyeur. He gets involved into the conversation, the person in the mirror has. He looks at the particular characteristics of the men but he is also searching for the flaws and imperfection of the women so it turns out that he, as a part of the society shares the paradoxical sense of beauty. All images were made at Studio Erwin Olaf in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 2010

ANTON
23.5" x 31.5" | 60 x 80 cm
Edition 10