Zed Nelson

Zed Nelson lives in London. His work has been published and exhibited worldwide.

Having gained recognition and major awards as a documentary photographer working in some of the most troubled areas of the world, Nelson has increasingly turned his focus on Western society, critiquing and studying contemporary social issues.

Love Me - Nelson’s recent exhibition is on display at the Durham Light Infantry (DLI) museum, Durham. I went to view his work last week. He has reflected on the cultural and commercial forces that drive a global obsession with youth and beauty. He did this by visiting 18 countries across 5 continents look at different cultures. The project explores how a new form of globalization is taking place, where an increasingly narrow Western beauty ideal is being exported around the world like a crude universal brand. The project spanned five years, and involved photographing sensitive issues as well outrageous ones.

This is one of his piece of work I saw in the DLI museum, the picture has been taking in Iran and it said that there are probably more nose jobs been done in Iran than any other country in the world.

I think that Nelson was trying to send a message through his photography work to society today by saying that plastic surgery should be for people who sustain disfigurement injuries, not for people with perfect eyes, nose hair and they want to change themselves into something they really aren’t.

I was not aware of how obsessed with plastic surgery a Muslim country like Iran is until I read about Nelson’s work. I was aware some western cultures were obsessed with bigger breasts, flatter stomachs and facelifts and some of these images are shown in Nelsons exhibition.

Altered body image

I have already done some work in Graphics looking at this topic however

Nelson picks up on the distorted views that people often have of themselves of what is considered attractive to others. He looks across the world at the impact of western society and the pressures of today contribute to what seems to be growing out of control.

How crazy is the fact that Oxygen has to be administered to exhausted contestants during final rounds of judging. The strain of intense dieting, dehydration and muscle-flexing, places high levels of strain on the heart and lungs, rendering many contestants dizzy, light-headed and weak. Even Olympian athletes don’t do this on the track and field events. 

Ronnie Coleman, winner.

Mr Olympia Competition. Las Vegas, USA

 Why do body builders have to paint themselves with fake tan? Why do Caucasian women in particular have to spray tan themselves? Nelson’s thought provoking images seem shocking but make you question.

Its not just about western culture though as looking at research on the internet I found that if you are Asian and pale then you're considered "rich" or "higher class" because you don't have to spend time working outside on farms or anything which is why darker-coloured Asians are considered "lower class." 
So in Asia lighter/paler skin is perceived as "higher class" while darker skin perceived as "lower class". Is this the influence of the western world?

Nelson suggests it is and that ‘beauty’ has become a universal brand. Advertising campaigns use images of Caucasian super slim, blond haired and blue eyed women. This makes African women want to lighten their naturally dark hair and also makes oriental women want to have surgery to give them western eyes.

Conclusion

Nelson shows in image terms how western influences have affected other cultures around the world.

I believe communications and technology today have accelerated this. People in far away places are able to be aware of and share each other’s culture. Satellites, TV’s and mobile phones not to mention advertising and big global companies such as Nike or Macdonald’s make it easy to influence even the most isolated cultures across the world.

Global culture is seen as Western, predominantly American culture gradually imposing itself around the world. There are McDonalds or Kentucky fast food places everywhere never mind what you can see on TV. This is detrimental to local cultures. Nelson captures many different nationalities in his images and it does seem that many cultures are focusing on what they see as western beauty being the image to try and achieve while almost overlooking their own natural beauty.  

What I like best about Nelson is images are more powerful than words. People will interpret an image more quickly than the written word and it crosses different languages and cultures.