EXACTITUDES

When speaking with my mother about my final major project – just in general terms, explaining what I was basing it all about – she said to me:

‘Oh well all you girls in your Facebook pictures look the same to me’

A eureka moment suddenly hit me, as I remembered the work of Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek, Rotterdam based photographer and stylist who have worked together since 1994. I had looked into their series exactitudes – a contraction of ‘exact’ and ‘attitude’ – when writing my Dissertation earlier this year and knew that it would be of some benefit to revisit.

Their work is inspired by an interest in prominent dress codes and innumerable social groups, systematically documenting various identities over the last 13 years. Rotterdam’s assorted, multicultural street scene is a main source of inspiration for the pair, although since 1998 they have been broadening their horizons and working in several cities abroad.

‘By registering their subjects in an identical framework, with similar poses and a strictly observed dress code, Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific record of peoples attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming group identity. The apparent contradiction between individuality and uniformity is, however, taken to such extremes in their arresting objective-looking photographic viewpoint and stylistic analysis that the artistic aspect clearly dominates the purely documentary element.’

This research and my mother's comment combined got my thinking about how a lot of people that I personally follow on social media accounts such as: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat are quite similar in appearance. Could this be due to trends in images and content being posted?

NETNOGRAPHY

I tested out this theory by conducting some netnography research - the practice of ethnology that analyses individuals behaviour on the internet. By searching through my Instagram feed,  I was able to find a selection of images that all have similar characteristics:

1. Within all of these images, the females have the same tilted side view pose, along with similar makeup and hair looks.

2. Waist Training sponsored posts and promotions were commonly found on celebrity/blogger accounts, all with alike styling and appearance.

Other examples of this could be:
The ‘Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge’ that went viral in 2015, where it seemed like everyone on Instagram suddenly had these huge lips as a result of lip plumping tools and products all inspired and promoted by the celebrity herself.

or

Simply high street clothes stores promoting their collections and new products through their social media accounts, which then inspires people to purchase these items. For example, Topshop have 6.6 million followers on Instagram alone, if they post a picture of their bestselling product, chances are a lot of that following are then going to purchase that same item.

REFLECTIONS

• From this information, it has been proved to me that a vast amount of content online is extremely alike and is influential on society and their self identification, both in subtle and drastic ways.
• I feel that at the minute, my thoughts and ideas are too literal and as a result of this, I'm not producing content with enough artistic and abstract relevance. 
• I've learnt that intense research is the key to success, as the more knowledge that I gain within a subject field, the more it will be reflected within my final outcomes. Research skills are something that will be of value to me throughout my whole career, no matter the industry, so being able to fine tune and perfect them now during the production of this project will ensure that I can use them the most effectively.