Barbara Asboth

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Barbara Asboth

Community Member

1 posts

27 comments

38 upvotes

267 points

Photographer in the UK; fiercely believing in self-love and acceptance <3

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Barbara Asboth • commented on 19 posts 2 years ago

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

I'm so sorry that society has made you feel that anyone in the above photos looks "bad" in your words, and that you have to resort to selfies to feel okay about yourself. This is the reality for many women nowadays and the whole reason for the project. The aim (if you read the original article via the link, or my comments here, as the article here was edited heavily) was not to say one is necessarily prettier or less pretty than the other. It's to get you, the viewer to question, why might you think the non selfie ones are "bad" if you think they are? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder goes the saying, and in this case it is more apt than ever. If you're not in a mental position to be able to see the beauty of a person regardless of specific features they accentuate or minimise... Then that is mostly about you, not the subjects. I hope you find peace with your own appearance some day.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Thank you! 😊 Luckily it seems that there are also plenty of positive comments, and there has been some interesting dialogue around the project, which I'm very pleased about! Haters gonna hate :)

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Thank you! 😊 Luckily it seems that there are also plenty of positive comments, and there has been some interesting dialogue around the project, which I'm very pleased about! Haters gonna hate :)

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Thank you! We did chat about what it would be like to do with men. In my opinion, and from what male acquaintances have told me, for men it's not usually their face but more about their muscles and body shape, especially upper body. So, it's kind of tricky territory for me as a cisgender heterosexual female to do that without potentially sending the wrong message, and the men would perhaps be even less willing to take shirts off for me, you know what I mean? 😂

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Thank you Sarah, I really appreciate your feedback and glad the project resonated with you! 😊 Your point about selecting a previous, favourite selfie, is great and I am indeed thinking about something like this for round 2!

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

The selfies are on the right. :)

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

I didn't, mainly because that generation doesn't tend to take selfies or use filters, as they didn't grow up with social media being insidious in their lives from a young age. It's not because I don't think their thoughts on appearance aren't relevant of course!

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Thank you for sharing your views! Like you say, it generated loads of discussion and emotions which art is supposed to do - you want it to get people thinking about the topic, even if they say they dislike the appearance! I'm so happy it did that. It is supposed to challenge people, and I'm pleased that some commenters also challenged ME to practise my diplomacy and explain with words the intention which may not be obvious to some and that's all right too.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

The aim wasn't to make them look better or worse in either photo - it was to get people thinking about the contrast of the two, and think about why they, the viewer, may prefer one or the other personally. :=

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

It was edited by the BP team a fair bit before it got published, so between that and my own submission being shorter than the full original text, perhaps some of the original intent got lost!

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

But *are* the selfies genuine? Just because they are smiling, are they necessarily a better reflection of the individual? If the more serious poses and expressions in the studio photos make you think they aren't reflective of the women's personalities or moods at the time, I invite you to consider why you might think that? If you had seen some of the women taking their selfies, taking several minutes, sometimes even longer, to produce a "natural" looking smile they were happy with for the selfie, might you think differently? Just some points to consider. I hope the project makes you think - seemingly it got a reaction, which I am very happy about. That's the point :)

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Please check out the uncompressed ones on the link at the top. Bored Panda compressed them very heavily :(

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

As for the lighting - yes it is somewhat flat (although the original uncompressed ones via the link above are much better quality than in this article), but flat isn't a bad thing if it's used with intention. Of course, in this aspect this is also a taste thing, and it wont be to everyone's taste, I am absolutely fine with that.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Mathias, I can see you are very invested in disliking this project, and you're of course welcome to your opinion. Luckily, I have had many clients who were very happy with the photos I took of them despite thinking they never had a good photo. This particular shoot was not for a client, not to please the women in the photos to pose them in a way that would be the most conventionally flattering way, which I am well aware of. It had the aim of making people think... why might we prefer a selfie over the more serious photo? Why might these women feel insecure? It's partially probably because of comments like yours, criticising their "after" photos not being attractive. Based on what criteria? These are rhetorical questions... if you feel like thinking about these answers, I invite you to.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Thank you for asking! There's a link to the higher resolution photos and full process and interviews on my blog, at the top of the article which shoudl answer most of those questions :) I agree, they were posed to an extent but the main goal was to make them slightly more serious, trying to challenge the common idea that a "pretty" woman is someone who smiles and looks friendly/cute/sexy in a selfie. I wanted to make people think about why they might prefer the selfie or my photo, and wonder, which is actually closer to the real person's vibe on the day, since they will never meet the women? There isn't really a right answer, necessarily. Let me know if you have any other questions though, happy to talk about it with those who have a genuine interest.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I'm so glad it made you think a bit. That was the goal that I think some people missed. I agree, my photos werent' meant to look extraordinary or dramatic at all (I could have done that... but then that would be trickery in its own right, surely), I wanted it to be quite smoothly toned and the poses a contrast to the often cute/sexy selfie looks.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

That was something we couldn't anticipate (how heavily each one would filter their selfie, although the project is also about the selfie angles themselves, not just the filters). I think it says a lot that those women who would probably use heavier filtering, did not even want to participate because they'd be shown without filters. Which is a takeaway from the project, too.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

First of all, I wouldn't call most of them skinny, most are average size I think. Some expressed concerns about their weight as it was. I would also invite you to consider perhaps why it was these women who applied? I did not see what they looked like before they came into the studio, they weren't chosen based on appearance except the ones I approached on the street. I did approach a variety of sizes and sadly, those you would call "plus size" looked offended or just declined saying they hated photos of themselves. This was a challenge, indeed, and I wish we had had some more plus sized ladies too, however they did not wish to be included.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

The interviews that go with each photo (which were quite long - only a short snippet was published here for each photo) in many cases exposed their insecurities which I think is brave to do, when you know a project will potentially be in the public eye.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Thank you for checking the originals out, and being open to changing your mind. :)

Show All 19 Comments

Barbara Asboth • upvoted 21 items 2 years ago

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

People really are mean, and that’s crazy to me that they are dishing out this much hate. You can tell that the images aren’t retouched, but that’s also one point of the project. Forget the lighting, focus on the point. I, as a photographer, always encounter clients who like to take behind the scenes photos and videos SO CONFIDENTLY, but when it comes to getting in front of my dslr they tense up. I LOVE THIS PROJECT, and thank you for sharing.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

I love this project, and I didn't know that phone cameras have a different lens than the human eye (which suddenly makes sense why pictures I take of people on my phone never look like "real life") 😅🤦‍♀️ I really appreciate this article and interviews, and I really hope you do more!! We're so used to seeing the "reg selfie vs professional photo shoot" type version of this project that it's really refreshing to see "selfie vs human eye"! I feel like the women seem so much more 'uniquely them' in the photos you took than the ones they selected (in the best of ways). I'd love to see a more expansive version of the project pulling in more women who are less confident, as well as having women select their "favorite selfie" instead of just taking one on the spot - the difference would be enormous.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Excellent article Barbara! Really nice insight. I kind of wonder how many people in the comments actually read the article? These women, natural and selfie, are all attractive. In my eyes. Isabella and Xin Yi, stick out a little more to me though💘. You should do one with guys. It would've been more fun if you added yourself also. Isabella, forget those magazines, you are absolutely gorgeous💘.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

I should just copy/paste at this point. Did you people read ANY of the text? OF COURSE the selfies look ‘better’ (at least in terms of what is expected in modern selfie culture - image distorted by phone camera lens, filtered into a sort of plastic faux reality, and an attempt to pose in a cutesy/sexy fake projection). The professional photo is meant to show a blunt reality; what people would see if they ran into these women on the street.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Say you didn’t understand the assignment without saying you didn’t understand the assignment.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Of course they do. I’m positively astonished at how many people are making this comment, indicating they have NO IDEA what this project was about. Sigh. Selfies - distorted with a phone camera lens, filtered to a plastic appearance, and often posed in a cutesy, sexy, pouty fakeness. This is not what people passing them on the street would see.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

But that wasn’t the point of this project. Of course the ‘selfies’ - taken with a phone camera that already distorts/lengthens the image, and then filtered beyond any semblance of reality - are going to be perceived by the modern selfie culture to be ‘prettier’. The point was to capture an image of the subjects that would more closely represent what a casual passerby would see in reality. Also, as the photographer/poster has pointed out multiple times throughout these comments, BP heavily edited the text and the images in the article have been compressed. There is a link at the top that will take you to the full text of the interviews and the high-resolution photos.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

I would say they're brave for putting their unfiltered photos online. People are judgemental as hell and trolls will make disgusting, hurtful comments. There's always the risk of attracting stalkers online as well.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

I really enjoyed the dialogue this created. Which to me, as an artist, is what you want your work to do. I am a 64 year old woman and can count on one hand how many photographs of myself, I have been happy with, self portrait or otherwise throughout the years. I refuse to use filters because the last thing I want is somebody to be thinking "she doesn't look like that in the picture". The best ones were taken by a professional and I wasn't smiling. There was nothing unnatural or forced. My vulnerability is evident and this is what made it a good photograph. Thank you for sharing such a beautifully timed project. I don't think I have ever enjoyed reading the comments after an article more than I did here.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

I'm honestly surprised how once they put on the filters, they managed to appear less attractive. I'm aware how I sound, but hear me out. The filters made them look almost like plastic. And I've always been someone who admires natural beauty. Great job on this.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

What is considered attractive changes every few years, this project is about feeling confident in your skin no matter the lens on the camera. Not only accepting the version of yourself that is the filtered selfie as that is not real. Seems like this got off track, this isn't for the viewer of the photo per se itd for the subject to see themselves as they are, and love that no matter whether they meet topical beauty standards or not. The selfies prove we can take photos that make us look more similar, not unique, which degrades our opinions of our unique features, blemishes, etc.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

A lot of modern society lives, and breathes, entirely online. To be willing to allow a stranger to portray your self image unfiltered, to the public, is brave. It puts yourself on display for (possibly millions of) others to analyze. You will see people making judgments in these comments about whether the people are attractive in each version of the photos, what they are wearing, how they are posing. This is something their employers and families could see, and that can affect their lives, directly. It's why many high powered, or famous, people hire PR companies. How people see us can shape our day-to-day.... And people are very. Very. Very. Judgmental.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Hm, but, at what point do we also accept that some people like extreme body modification? There's this balance, I think, that we need to address: when is it unhealthy, and when can we just say, "that's not for me, but you do you."? I don't think we should shame a person for doing something ,"unnatural," just because some people feel forced to do what they don't want to do. I think we need to encourage self expression, the way we want to express, and not force others to express naturally, or unnaturally, because we think we know better than they know themselves.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

they are all so beautiful!!! you are a wonderful photographer and an even more wonderful person. keep up the amazing work!<3

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

I don't think this project hurts women at all. None of them seem hurt. And I certainly loved the project, and wasn't hurt by it. Women don't need to be shown that they're strong. We're told that every damn day. We tell ourselves that; we tell each other that. What we don't tell each other is that we're good enough. What we don't say is that we're all uncomfortable with how we look because society has made us that way and that none of us deserves that. This project wasn't about beauty. It was about acceptance.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

I really appreciated this. I personally like the photographer shots on every single one of them - they look like real people, people I meet and know every day. The selfies look like just that...selfies. My generation grew up with the former, not the latter, on the walls of our childhood homes. Perhaps that's why.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

The photographer's photos are much nicer than the selfies.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

People here are majorly missing the point of how people angle and warp themselves for selfies vs how they look like to others irl. Like the point is literally not which one looks better because duh of f*****g course the one manipulated by the person in the photo is gonna look as flattering to the masses as possible...

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

I LITERALLY AM A WOMAN WTF ARE YOU ON ABOUT LMAO In most of the selfies they suddenly have a far more prominent jaw, less cheek fat and a longer face than in the professional photos which shows what they really look like... aka more masculine

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

I think this is a very interesting project. While the photos by the photographer don't look extraordinary – in terms of light, pose etc. – I don't think that was the goal anyways. Yes, the people often smile more in the selfies. However,often you can see it's a fake smile – the eyes don't laugh, only their mouth. For me the comparison between two photos often feels like "You're smiling in the selfie. But did you actually feel like smiling or was it only to look good? If you don't feel like smiling, you shouldn't." I looked at the selfies first, then at the photos by a photographer. I see the person on the selfie and think "Yeah, she's quite pretty" though nothing more. Then I looked at the other photo and thought "Wow, even though she's not smiling in this picture, she looks way more likeable and even prettier." Because it's NOT about taking a pose and trying to look the best they can. They don't have to do that. They're pretty anyway – all of them, no exceptions – even without trying.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

A smoothing filter, is just like using blue make up. It's when, say the Kardashians (in all of their extreme hatred for themselves), use professional photoshopped photos, that on top of the constant plastic surgery, make young girls think a tiny waist is perfectly natural with a 48 inch butt. I'm not sure who, or why anyone thought those butt implants on ANYONE was normal, but it's sick! And as 40 some year old women, you should know better, do better!

Show All 21 Upvotes

Barbara Asboth • submitted a new post 2 years ago

Photography & Digital Art

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

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Barbara Asboth • commented on 20 posts 2 years ago

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Thank you! 😊 Luckily it seems that there are also plenty of positive comments, and there has been some interesting dialogue around the project, which I'm very pleased about! Haters gonna hate :)

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

The selfies are on the right. :)

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

It was edited by the BP team a fair bit before it got published, so between that and my own submission being shorter than the full original text, perhaps some of the original intent got lost!

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Please check out the uncompressed ones on the link at the top. Bored Panda compressed them very heavily :(

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Thank you for checking the originals out, and being open to changing your mind. :)

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

There was an intent to the way it's posed or lit. Not everyone will agree, and that's OK. There is no pleasing everyone. You're welcome to check my full portfolio for proof of my knowledge of posing and lighting if you are worried about my credentials of course, but I don't think it's relevant. :)

Barbara Asboth • upvoted 20 items 2 years ago

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

Say you didn’t understand the assignment without saying you didn’t understand the assignment.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

The photographer's photos are much nicer than the selfies.

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

they are all so beautiful!!! you are a wonderful photographer and an even more wonderful person. keep up the amazing work!<3

To Explore The Effects Of Social Media And Filters On Young Women, I Asked 12 Brave Females To Take A Selfie And Then Photographed Them With A Professional Camera

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