"Two Worlds Collide"

At first glance, I thought Azis and Coucher were documenting a skin disorder and the emotional and physical impact it has on others. I think, though, that their Dystopia goes a lot deeper than that. They have swapped our treasured societal views of perfection and conformity to a world engulfed in ugliness, fear and the loss of self that sometimes accompanies falling into society's trap of illusions.

The lecture, "A Collision of Two Worlds" described how much editing and manipulation photographers use to create images more pleasing to the eye. To me, this takes away from the purity of the original photo. It also makes knowing what photos are real or what has fallen victim to manipulation quite difficult if not impossible. For me, the perfections and illusions found in everyday magazines certainly make my photography look Elementary. It's almost impossible to measure up to it.

This is all very similar to the Dove Evolution Video. People (especially teens)compare themselves to the perfect images they see in magazines that have been enhanced in more ways than one. They begin to lose themselves in their hunt for perfection not realizing that they are awesome just the way they already are.

Very similarly, spirit photography tampers with people but sometimes on a much deeper level. People are visually tricked to believing spirits exist in pictures through light manipulation or photographic distortion. Sometimes, they may even be tricked into believing they are seeing family members who have died but are somehow living in the photograph.

I have three children, ages 11, 2 and my daughter will turn one next month. I can only hope that I instill enough strength as well as a high degree of personal sense of self in each of them so they don't fall victim to the illusions life will surely throw their way.