Italian photographer Carla Rossi’s lasting memories of how women were represented on national television when she was growing up are as unfathomably glamorous and incongruously sexual assistants on game shows, where it wouldn’t be unusual to witness a velina (game-show girl) dressed in skin-tight latex beside her normally dressed male host, broadcast in a primetime slot for family viewing. But her relationship with images also came through her own family. ‘More specifically, with the relationship I used to have with my grandmother,’ she says. ‘She was someone really obsessed with images, you know, she would do things such as paying the photographer of the village to take pictures of me and my sister.’
‘Bellissima’ by Carla Rossi
Rossi had ambitions to become a model herself as a route out of the small village she lived in, and she’s acutely aware of how this early relationship with images played into her own dreams. The message the young Rossi absorbed through her television screens in Berlusconi’s Italy was one of a beauty standard and performance of femininity best captured through the Miss Italia competition, the final stages of which were broadcast across the nation. As such, for many Italian girls, the competition not only sets the benchmark for their beauty standards, but can itself be a vehicle through which their ability to meet these standards is rewarded with a career.
In this newly published project, Rossi wanted to bring to the fore the dizzying messages she internalised growing up, and explore their impact on girls today who are still actively participating. Rossi began by entering the Miss Italia Lombardia regional tour herself as a model in order to better understand the pageant castings and the contestants. There, she met a young aspiring model, Rebecca, just turned 18 and therefore eligible to enter, who became her central subject. Rebecca’s ambition was to become a professional model and she viewed the competition as a key step towards her career goals. ’We spoke about her experiences often. I spoke with her about the critical part of the book and I don't think she agrees with my point of view; I don't think, for her, a beauty pageant represents a problem, it's an opportunity,’ says Rossi.
Rossi’s photographs depict Rebecca on stage competing, at home rehearsing, and in the studio playing out her modelling dreams. Shot on digital, the images are often an image of an image on a television screen, flickering and abstracted, mirroring those initial images broadcast into the family rooms of young girls like her. Photographed both made-up for the pageant and make-up free in her downtime, in heels and feathery showgirl costumes, as well as barefoot and casual, the photo edit draws a contrast between the young woman as she is and the version of herself she needs to be to compete.
‘I composed the images to highlight the pixels and the contrivance of those images that are very choreographed. There is a bunch of choreography that characterises this pattern of imagery, not just in beauty pageants, but in the construction of women’s identities through television images. I wanted television images to be an important aspect of the book to drive a comparison to the television of the Berlusconi era, which has been a turning point of all of these cultural twists in Italy.’
It was important to Rossi that Rebecca be photographed not just as the central focus, but also among the line-up for the competition. A trained ballerina and therefore familiar with the subtle choreography of auditions, where the less favoured dancers would be positioned to the back, Rebecca spotted the same thing happening during the competition, from which she was eventually cut.
The edit and image sequence of the book is a reflection of this process, intentionally crafted to raise a fundamental question: ‘Would beauty really matter if we couldn't witness it from images?’ says Rossi. ‘Beauty in images and real life are fundamentally different, both in how they are achieved and perceived. Photographs, by their very nature, tend to idealise their subjects, whether intentionally or not.
'There is a dual process at play: first, the subject themselves is performing, consciously or unconsciously curating an improved version of their own image; second, the act of photographing inherently transforms them into something fixed, idealised, and significant, an interpretation that exists beyond time. As a model, you become accustomed to seeing images of yourself and may start wanting to look like them in real life as well. That’s what gets you stuck in an endless loop of training, scrubbing, creaming, etc, but without ever being able to reach that image.'
-
A new café-bar in Vancouver reawakens a modernist landmarkArthur Erickson’s Waterfall Building enters a new chapter with Ellipsis, a day-to-night gastronomic concept designed for conviviality
-
The Aemotion is a tilting two-seater designed to zip through city trafficAn electric commuting machine, the Aemotion provides swift, safe and enclosed transport for two
-
Paolo Carzana on his emotional London show: ‘To me fashion is meaningful, powerful, and completely unfrivolous’The shy Welsh designer took over the reading rooms of the British Library on Sunday evening, presenting a collection that called attention to Earth’s most endangered creatures and cemented his position as one of London’s most singular design talents
-
‘Scripted’ is a new book that explores the dark side of beauty photographyPhotographer Alex Black’s images explore and subvert contemporary definitions of beauty – take a peek inside her new book
-
What is the relationship between fashion, photography and the domestic space? A new book exploresAdam Murray’s ‘The Domestic Stage: When Fashion Image Comes Home’ documents – and interrogates – the use of the domestic space in fashion imagery, from the 1990s to present, featuring memorable works from Corinne Day, Carrie Mae Weems and Tina Barney
-
Piers Hanmer on designing the sets for some of fashion’s most memorable imagesA new book charts the era-defining work of British set designer Piers Hanmer, who was discovered by Annie Leibovitz and went on to work on some of fashion’s most inventive imagery, including spreads in Vogue, Vanity Fair and W Magazine
-
Remembering X-girl’s notorious 1994 fashion show, which starred a pre-fame Chloë SevignyA new book by Angela Hill, ‘X-girl Show’ – featuring an introduction by Chloë Sevigny – documents the cult label’s renegade 1990s fashion show, which took place in New York and captured a changing underground look
-
50 years of Santoni, the footwear brand steeped in Italian craft, celebrated in a new bookInside ‘Santoni Meraviglia’, a richly illustrated new tome published by Assouline that tells the story behind the Italian brand’s meticulously crafted footwear
-
‘Independence, community, legacy’: inside a new book documenting the history of cult British streetwear label AriesRizzoli’s ‘Aries Arise Archive’ documents the last ten years of the ‘independent, rebellious’ London-based label. Founder Sofia Prantera tells Wallpaper* the story behind the project
-
This new book is a colourful ‘visual retrospective’ of Jonathan Anderson’s time at LoeweFollowing the news of his exit from Loewe earlier this week, ‘Crafted World: Jonathan Anderson’s Loewe’ explores the British designer’s transformative tenure at the Spanish house – from runway shows to cultural initiatives
-
This photo book captures the ‘beauty and chaos’ behind the scenes of an Alaïa collectionFor the past three years, Pieter Mulier has given photographer Anthony Seklaoui access to the Alaïa atelier, documenting the Belgian creative director’s pursuit of ‘raw beauty’ at the French house
