If you are in Los Angeles, I highly recommend catching the Beauty Culture Exhibit at the Annenberg Space for Photography before it departs on November 27th. And if you aren’t so close to Los Angeles, you can still experience the viewpoint of photographers and some of their images on the Annenberg website. It’s thought- provoking, stunning, and horrifying, all at once. In a word – intense. Photographer Lauren Greenfield created a 30 minute documentary for the exhibit which runs in a loop in the center of the gallery. It displays the highs and lows, the grace and pain, and everything in between that is modern beauty. I only hope Greenfield is able to publicly showcase the documentary after the exhibit. Beauty is so intertwined with our lifestyle and society, it can neither be all good or bad, and Greenfield does a great job walking the line between both extolling its virtues and being all too aware of its devastating traps.
In conjunction with the exhibit, throughout the month of October there is a great speaker series, discussing the topics of beauty and society. Here are the dates and schedules, but for more information, click here.
Thursday Evenings 6:30 to 8:00PM
Thursday, October 6, Peter Fetterman and Lizzie Himmel -“Women In Photography”
Thursday, October 11, Randall Slavin with Charlize Theron -“The Making of 24 Portraits”
Thursday, October 13, Lauren Greenfield
Thursday, October 20, Mona Kuhn -“Beauty Without Apologies”
Thursday, October 27, Elaine D’Farley and Philip Gefter – “Beauty: The Real vs. the Ideal“
The Mind Body Moderate 