PUBLICATION, RESEARCH PUBLICATION, PROMOTION ︎ 2019 ︎ EDITORIAL DESIGN, PHOTOGRAPHY, EDITING, WEB DESIGN, IDENTITY. ︎  Design research, identity, web development, video and photo editing. ︎ Project developed in collaboration with Francesca Ticca.

This is a publication made and produced by women for women. The book has been made possible by collaboration with 21 beautiful souls that strongly believed in the project. The outcomes of the project are two publications: the photobook and the theory book. When first approaching the project, it has been necessary to study the psychology of the human perception that influences the image and the conception of the female body nowadays. For this reason, the definitions of objectification and the consequent one of auto-objectification of the body have been carefully analysed.

The photo book acts as a timeless bubble: the first stage showcases blurred photos of the environments where the photo shoots took place; the second portrays the observed object (flow theory by Hungarian psychologist Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi); the third is the stage of the awakening; the fourth depicts the subject as agent, active; while the last one constitutes the ending of the book and the bubble that was created, presenting the same environments as the ones at the beginning of the book, this time well on focus.

The narrative of the book is designed as an experience created alongside a music playlist, accessible through the QR code on the cover. The concept of the book is to create the flow or create an immersion, a condition of optimal wellbeing, a bubble far from the self-objectifying vision of the female body. Represent the transition from being considered an observed object to becoming a fully agent subject.

As a parallel to the photo book itself, the website acts as the platform through which the project is promoted, giving an overview of the photos included in the publication and reflecting its same narrative. To publicise and share the project to wider audiences a series of slideshows aims to go with the presentation of the project during promotional events. As well, it includes the link to the playlist that was 

created during the shootings, which merges all the songs that helped the participants to the project to get to the flow. Here is the link to the Flow playlist ︎ ︎ SPOTIFY.

The theory book on the other hand, collects all the psychological theories and the research that helped in the project development. The public to whom the project is address are people who identify as females. The intention of the main publication–the photobook–is to show the body as an element of nature; celebrate bodies and their beauty; generate a new, more normalised conception of the female body; resist objectification and self-objectivation; raise awareness.

A more in-depth research on how psychologically women are perceive by society has been the key to organise the photo shoota with the participants. This investigation, alongside the flow theory and a study of the female body in photography, highly influenced the narrative of the publication–the photobook.

The narrative of the boook is thought as a bubble: the entrance gathers unfocused images of the location of the photoshoots. The feeling represented here is a sense of the unknown.

The first section is a collection of body details aimed at giving a sense of fear and obligation. The central section potrays photos with slow movement as the start of the transition or awakening. The fourth section depicts full-body pictures with the purpose of showing the freed subject.

The last section of the publication gathers on-focused images of the locations of the photoshoots. Here, throught these photos traspires a sense of understanding.  The cover wrapped around the main publication–the photobook–, gives space to the participants’ thoughts and portraits, before and immediately after the photoshoots. Not every participant was willing to agree to this, so we included just the ones who did.