Perfection’s Illusion (2017)

Photography by Madelaine Bustamante

Smile! Shoot! Done! We live in an Instant World, everything, absolutely everything seems to be recorded and saved; although, not the sincerest era indeed. To this world, where nothing seems to be really solid, Bauman will call “Liquid Modern World” and I couldn’t agree more with his concept about its liquidity. All has to be done at the very moment, but as soon as the picture is taken it’s not needed anymore, and the “perfection” encircled in that image disappears as soon as it came.

And people seem to be aware of this phenomenon, but keep on engaging in these acts where you display a fake image, an image of a perfect life, a perfect body, a perfect food, and so on; there is no space for imperfection anymore and the standards’ people have to keep on hitting unreachable levels. It seems there’s no more room for real acceptance because acceptance itself is being, somehow, sold out in this big market social media has to turn our lives into.

When the relation of a person with his body is already as problematic as it can be due to the changes it keeps on going through, new trends are making it only more and more unbearable, and mental illnesses related to self-image are at the top of the scale thanks to it. Though among the benefits we can tell that people are getting “more” connected to some extension, whether you’re in Paris or Quito, whether you are on earth or water, you can always reach someone out due to internet and all its facilities... but even relationships are being damaged and affected.

Should a big STOP be put? Should parents keep their children away from all these novelties? Is there anything that can be done? Other than informing people, not really. Ignorance is still the biggest enemy, even when the information is right there just to be taken. It’s all about explaining to people the difference between fantasy and reality, about their worth despite everything, and the good management of the media that could help us more instead of harming us if we allow it.

“We worship perfection because we can’t have it; if we had it, we would reject it. Perfection is inhuman, because humanity is imperfect.”

― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet.

by Madelaine Bustamante.

[October 2017]

References:
Bauman, Z. (2007). Liquid Times: Living in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Pessoa, F. (2002). The Book of Disquiet. London: Penguin Books.