Metaphoric Women

AKA Fruity Ladies
  • Sue
  • Delilah
  • Hope
  • Destiny
  • Patsy
  • Blithe, Felicity & Faith
  • Patience
  • Eve
  • Grace & Sybil
  • Misty
  • Charity

Fruit as a subject matter, and a metaphor for woman, is quite appropriate in that is is a long established, yet unfair comparison.  Other than the domestic or nature connotations, fruit is judged on its appearance, whether that is it's size, firmness or ripeness.  On most occasions all of these factors apply together to influence the consumer on whether they are worthy of being picked and eaten.  These pressures are placed upon women also, all throughout their lives.  They are constantly being judged and their beauty and worth is considered, like fruit, to have a limited shelf life.
Fruit has a clear identification structure in it's own world - a tomato is a tomato and a banana will always be a banana.  I set out to erode these clear guidelines using imagery to outline fruit in a human connotation, anthropomorphising the subjects.  Why would a tomato feel the need to dress as an orange just to be accepted by society?
Using metaphors, literal imagery and representations through the medium of photography and fruit sculpture - this work depicts various situations and predicaments that today's women and girls, all throughout their lives, will find themselves in due to the pressures of everyday life and expectations of society.  I set about creating a number of situations which highlight not only the physical, but also the mental pressures on women in today's modern society.  Although they are just fruit, with a few carefully chosen props throughout the series, the intention is that through the minimalistic way the photographs are set, the viewer will be able to focus on the situation that the subject is in and either relate to it as a human, or at least have some pathos for the subject.
As I have focussed on some serious subjects, I wanted to offer a balance to the viewer by styling the photographs in a humorous way.  The gory topics referred to in some of the images are softened by the fact that the viewer is just looking at fruit in unusual situations, which merely represent the female form or the female mind.  I have used various metaphors within the images, as well as giving all the 'models' names that have revealing meanings.

Gallery

Please click on an image to see it in full.

A quote from John Berger's Ways of seeing has been with me throughout this project:
 To be born a woman has been (in the past) to be born, with an allotted and confined space, into the keeping of men.  The social presence of women has developed as a result of their ingenuity in living under such tutelage within such a limited space.  But this has been at the cost of a woman's self being split in two.  A woman must continually watch herself.  She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself.  Whilst she is walking across a room or whilst she is weeping at the death of her father, she can scarcely avoid envisaging herself walking or weeping.  From earliest childhood she has been taught and persuaded to survey herself continually.

Not only do women have to consider their appearance to the opposite sex, but also to the same sex, as women are often the harshest judges of each other, based on unrealistic expectations set by the media which originate from misogynistic and patriarchal views.  This begins at an early age when girls are too young to understand the mental consequences it can have.
By no means have I covered every issue.  The subject is unresolved; as there are so many more metaphoric fruity lady scenes I could create, I feel I have merely touched on a few of them, and would need much more fruit.