Topic: portraits

Check Out These Striking Portraits Of American Girls With Their American Girl Dolls

Check Out These Striking Portraits Of American Girls With Their American Girl Dolls
Maya and Leela, NY
Jenna, MA
Gillian, NY
Jade, NY
Chanel, NY

American Girl dolls have been around for almost 30 years now. In that time, the company has grown from a few dolls and books to a giant multinational conglomerate with a bajillion spin-off items. For many kids, the $100 mini-mes have become something of a status symbol, with the ostensible benefit of an educational component.

After noticing how into these dolls many young American girls were, Polish photographer Ilona Szwarc decided to do a series of portraits of girls in their homes with their dolls. “Traveling to America when I was young, I always wondered what it would be like to grow up here,” Szwarc told Slate. “Once I moved to New York as an adult, I wanted to revisit those feelings I had back then, and the American Girl doll phenomenon seemed like the right platform to reconnect with those experiences.”

She continued: “I see American Girl dolls more as an extension on the idea of celebrity dolls. Typically, celebrities have dolls made after their likeness—American Girl dolls offer a democratization of this idea: Now every girl can have a mini-me doll.” This seems very true! Let’s look at some of her striking portraits. More »

Anne Hathaway Looks Strangely Pretty On Cover Of Harper’s Bazaar, Insists She Lacks Sex Appeal

Anne Hathaway Looks Strangely Pretty On Cover Of Harper's Bazaar, Insists She Lacks Sex Appeal

We here at TheGloss are pretty big fans of Anne Hathaway. She’s talented, typically well-spoken and undeniably pretty. While I myself do not enjoy all the movies she has been in (ahem), I do think she has successfully achieved some pretty fantastic roles, too. Plus, she photographs gorgeously and is always recognizable as herself in portraits. But this February’s cover of the UK edition of Harper’s Bazaar sort of irks me. More »

‘Stand Tall, Get Snapped’: Photographer Edo Zollo Seeks To Destigmatize People Living With HIV

'Stand Tall, Get Snapped': Photographer Edo Zollo Seeks To Destigmatize People Living With HIV

Living with HIV is a frightening prospect, but millions of people do so every day. For some, the stigma accompanying their status is even more terrifying: people can be cruel, demeaning and afraid of those with HIV, treating them as though they are less than human or that they are to blame for the condition. Photographer Edo Zollo seeks to change these misconceptions through his series, “Stand Tall, Get Snapped.” More »

Gallery: Leland Bobbé’s Mesmerizing Half-Drag Portraits

Gallery: Leland Bobbé's Mesmerizing Half-Drag Portraits
Sabel by Leland Bobbé
Heidi Glum by Leland Bobbé
Sherry Vine by Leland Bobbé
Pixie Aventura by Leland Bobbé
Miss Fame by Leland Bobbé

Photographer Leland Bobbé has a transfixing series of portraits called Half-Drag, each featuring a real New York City drag queen half made-up. For a culture so identified by its bombastic use of hair and makeup, it’s arresting to see the men beneath. Says Bobbé: “I had previously done a shot [similar to these] of burlesque performer Doctor Flux and I thought why not do something similar using real New York City drag queens. I got great feedback [on the initial portrait] so I decided to reach out to other drag queens using Facebook as my main means of communication. My shot with Flux wasn’t this tight but I thought that by shooting very tight I could really emphasize the difference between the drag side and the man side. I’ve now shot four people with many more on the way. We’ll see where this takes me…” More »

Airplane Bathroom Portraits “In The Flemish Style” Are Fantastic

Airplane Bathroom Portraits "In The Flemish Style" Are Fantastic

We’re late on this but it is delightful. Wonderfully inventive goofball Nina Katchadourian slips into airplane restrooms and adorns herself with all manner of available accessories–namely paper towels and inflatable neck-supporting pillows–to create portraits of herself “in the Flemish style.” All the photos are taken in-flight using a camera phone and lit only by the stall’s shitty overhead lights. The results are so much greater than the sum of their parts. More »

Gallery: These Photos Of Porn Stars Eating Food Are Weirdly Compelling

Gallery: These Photos Of Porn Stars Eating Food Are Weirdly Compelling
Kimberly Kane
Dana Dearmond And Bobbi Starr
Dana Dearmond
Kleio Valentien
Eden Von Sleaze

So Vice published a bunch of photos of porn stars eating yesterday, and they’re a lot more interesting than I thought they would be when I first saw the headline. Rather than showing them doing ridiculous things with their food, most of the photos show their subjects doing a regular thing in a regular way, hence humanizing them to the viewer. A lot of them look fairly normal when not in porn get-ups, like someone you might be friends with. It’s not surprising to me, but it might be to someone who doesn’t know any porn people. More »

Portraits Of Extreme Plastic Surgery Ask: “Can Humans Create A New Kind Of Beauty?”

Portraits Of Extreme Plastic Surgery Ask: "Can Humans Create A New Kind Of Beauty?"
Michael
Yvette
Steve
Tiana
Agel

Photographer Philip Toledano‘s series “A New Kind of Beauty” raises some interesting questions about the relationship between plastic surgery and beauty–questions we’ve wrestled with on this very blog. Can altering oneself cosmetically be a form of self-expression? Or is it always, at least in part, determined by prevailing opinions about beauty? Opinions, of course, that are often sexist, racist, classist and all kinds of barbaric. Toledano’s strange, unsettling images concern those who have taken plastic surgery to extremes, but depicts them in classical portraiture. More »

Gallery: Funny Pictures Of People Who’ve Switched Clothes With Each Other

Gallery: Funny Pictures Of People Who've Switched Clothes With Each Other
Rosemary and Liban
Pete and Brylee
Michelle and Trevor
Michelle and Jesse
Leila and Azim

Have you ever looked at two people sitting next to each other on the subway and wondered what it would look like if they switched clothes with each other and then went back to sitting casually in the exact same positions as before? No? Well, my weird friends and I have, which is why we were so stoked to find out that a Vancouver artist named Hana Pesut has made a project of visually answering that question. For her “Switcheroo” portraits, she has two (often quite different-looking) people switch outfits and positions with each other, often with humorous results. It’s also interesting how the people in the images can disappear into one another, showing the huge role clothing plays in how we perceive others. Here are some of my favorites. More »

Gallery: Nicki Minaj Takes The Term ‘Renaissance Woman’ Literally In W‘s Art And Fashion Issue

Gallery: Nicki Minaj Takes The Term 'Renaissance Woman' Literally In W's Art And Fashion Issue
The Cover
Neo-Rococo Portrait of Nicki Minaj as Madame Barbe de Rimsky-Korsakov
Rococo Portrait of Nicki Minaj as Jeanna Antoinette Poisson, Marquise Of Pompadour
Rococo Portrait of Nicki Minaj as Jeanna Bécu, Comtesse Du Barry
Rococo Portrait Of Nicki Minaj As Francoise Athenais de Rochechouart de Mortemart, Marquise de Montespan

Anna Wintour’s new favorite partner in blunt-smoking Nicki Minaj is the cover girl of W‘s November “art and fashion” issue, and for the accompanying editorial, the magazine decided to do something unexpected and wonderful with her. With the help of artist Francesco Vezzoli, they styled her to look like several different Renaissance portraits, if Nicki Minaj had been alive back then. (And if black women had been allowed to be noblewomen in 17th century Europe.) In addition to being cool and unique, I think the photos do a great job showcasing Nicki’s natural beauty, which often takes a backseat to her crazy ensembles. More »