Mel Bagshaw - Doll face - Blue

Mel Bagshaw
Dollface series
Color photo
19.5" x 29.5"

Several framing options available

Doll face (2008-2010) looks at the roles, dress and stages of women that have been discussed, celebrated and desired by society as a whole.

These are roles, where women have a strong visual identity and a potentially underlying dominance and sexual power. Taking recognizable working roles of women, many of which are often seen as service roles, weak or un-empowered, these direct confrontational images reveal the power and possibilities of these roles and transform them into powerful symbols of female supremacy. These uniforms are a powerful way of representing and defining our image, starting from our first presentation to the world, our baby clothes. These clothes begin the process of our image presentation, description of gender and sexuality to the world.
Using one model throughout serves to illustrate the power of women, with makeup and dress, to manipulate, adapt, reinvent and represent themselves in numerous different guises and personas.

The photographs can be viewed individually or as a sequence of 12 images that form a cohesive narrative and a metaphorical journey of development, growth, female identity and empowerment. The model Marta Ovod, who collaborated on the work, evolves into a photographer, which is now her chosen career. She is stripped bare at the end of the sequence as she is at the beginning of the narrative