Photo:BBC4
No Body's Perfect is a documentary recently screened by BBC4, with acclaimed photographer Rankin and artist Alison Lapper, whose nude, pregnant, limbless body was sculpted by Marc Quinn and displayed in Trafalgar Square until 2007, becoming a famous and for some, controversial, landmark. The documentary follows four people who have great problems in accepting themselves and in seeing themselves as unique individuals, all because of some physical condition that modifies their appearance, in the case of three of them, and in the case of the fourth one, because of her body dysmorphia which compels her to see herself as ugly and repulsive, a totally unrealistic self image.
Rankin has the task of taking photos of these four people, in his London studio. The idea is for them to see themselves with fresh eyes and discover their inner beauty and character. Lapper is there to provide moral support, as someone who has had to fight her own battles to come to terms with her difference. She is a most inspiring role model.
Rankin is a gifted portraitist, a modern Rembrandt, perhaps. His moments of reflection in the documentary reveal great honesty. The unease felt by most people when confronted by the artfully photoshopped images of high fashion models and celebrities in the media is to an extent also due to him and other people in his profession. Rankin is aware of being 'part of the problem' in his role as photographer of those very people whose flawless images exacerbate the extreme sense of inadequacy experienced by the likes of Alana, the teenager affected by body dysmorphia. Taking part in this project thus has a redemptive quality for Rankin who is able to tap into the healing property that photography, as an art form, can definitely have, bringing out the uniqueness and the beauty of each individual subject, through striking, well lit, well composed, portraits.
Rankin talks about the selfie culture emphasising the sense of sameness and artificiality that it engenders. Selfies and portraits could not be further removed from one another. A portrait is an honest representation of yourself in your uniqueness, a selfie is often so doctored through filters and almost codified body poses, that it is rarely an honest portrayal of an individual, it is instead an attempt at making oneself the same as all others.
self portrait AlexB
I, for one, really dislike taking selfies, even though in my work as a model I am often asked to cast through selfies and velfies (video-selfies), which I dislike even more. I used to take self portraits and that was a completely different thing. I might begin again.I watched the documentary with great interest and found young Alana's plight quite heart rending. I felt extremely sorry for her and even more for her mother yet I could not help feeling somewhat irritated. Honestly, in a world in which so many people struggle to survive why is this girl spending all her time looking at herself in the mirror? Something is seriously wrong here and I cannot put my finger on it, I realise body dysmorphia is a mental illness, but are we turning it into something bigger than it is?
I am also confused by this idea of body perfection, as this has changed over the centuries, perfection seems to have different meanings to different people. For me a perfect body is the trained body of an athlete or of a dancer, with well developed muscles and, particularly in the case of dancers, the ability to move gracefully and with ease. It's a body one achieves through hard work, often overcoming physical imperfections. I remember reading an interview with the sublime ballerina Natalia Osipova who confessed that when she first started at the Bolshoi she could not jump. “I was not very tall, and not perfectly proportioned – not the prettiest body. If I wanted to achieve something, I had to improve my technique, and she [Marina Kondriatieva] forced me to work on it.’
This is so inspiring, truly. She did not beat herself up for not being tall and with the longest legs. She worked on what she had and developed an ability to almost fly.
Natalia Osopova as Giselle. Photo: Alistair Muir. Reblogged
No body is perfect but you can certainly work on yours and achieve 'perfection' if you work at developing its potential. Were I a teenager I'd rather focus my energy on developing the ability to jump with the ease of Natalia Osipova then try at all cost to turn myself into a copy of the latest celeb in the news.
It is a matter of balance.
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