Audience in Relation to Media

 My audience in this magazine, also known as DreamGirl Magazine is women and non-binary femmes of color. I want this magazine to be a project that reflects the way that people who don’t fit into the non-eurocentric ideals of beauty are beautiful and it will have a very ethereal aesthetic pertaining to it. The ideal of the “Dream Girl” is something that I’ve always been really fascinated and frustrated by, and I’ve often asked people what their definition of a dream girl is. Their respective definitions have left me at times very anxious about my own identity as a femme person of color and it can be very difficult to detach others’ ideals from my self-perception. Thus, I wanted to create a magazine that is beauty and fashion-centered and spotlights women and non-binary femmes of color in a light that I do not see in mainstream fashion. 

Below are some images that I plan to use as inspiration: 

(Credit: Paloma Wool) 

I want to use light as a way to draw attention to the features which are often ignored by photographers in the entertainment industry as a whole, such as skin texture and birthmarks. Bright flashes of light often bring these features to light and I think that can be very symbolic of a sort-of otherworldly beauty (bright light="go into the light") that is most often represented in works populated by very pale-skinned people (who usually also have very light-colored hair and eyes). 

(Credit: Paloma Wool): I enjoy the posing of this photograph and that is what I intend to draw inspiration from. I want to use this pose in a very editorial sense in that I could have the image cut out from its background and use it on a sort-of psychedelic background in a mirrored pattern. Poses like this remind me of the emotion of feeling hidden whether that be in society or a more isolated setting. I think that many women and non-binary femmes of color feel like society has cast a shadow on them and that can be represented literally with a pose like this. 

(Credit: Paloma Wool): Dynamic poses like this can be very energetic and add life to a 2-d magazine. 

(Credit: Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood): Playing into the natural essence of humanity is a really interesting idea to me and I think that is best done through the implementation of other natural elements in photography. Preferably greenery. I want to use color as a mechanism of exaggeration and bring out the shapes of the photographic subject. One example of this phenomenon that is present in the image is the layering of flowers over the woman's arms and clothes, I think it symbolizes the synergy of Kronthaler's work with nature.