Sadistic, Oddly Arresting Images Explore Feminine Beauty and the Pursuit of Perfection

There’s no holding back in Melbourne-based photographer Jessica Ledwich‘s confronting series The Fanciful, Monstrous Feminine. With a critical eye, Ledwich explores contemporary beauty standards and practices, and the pursuit of perfection therein.

Through a slew of dark, bizarre scenes that reimagine the lengths women go to in transforming their bodies, Ledwich does anything but shy away from commenting on the value our society places on vanity and the cultural paradigms we’ve created.

Starring an anonymous red-lipped and manicured vixen melding body with machine, Ledwich’s images are disturbingly sadistic, yet oddly arresting. She further explores women’s sexuality, saying that “historically it has been portrayed as something scary, uncomfortable and threatening…there is enormous cultural fear surrounding the idea of aging, and as such there is an entire generation of women whose identities are being shaped by this.” Through Ledwich’s visual spin, we are reminded, if not asked, to examine the physical and psychological toll on the modern female.

via Beautiful Decay

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