Author | Winter Mendelson
Gracie Hagen is a Chicago-based videographer and photographer. She runs a commercial photo studio in Wicker Park, but still makes time to shoot for personal interest as well.
She has a large body of work and most of her topics are inspired by gender, age, body image, and religion. For example, in her series Illusions of the Body she features nude models juxtaposed in two positions. The left image portrays the subject as whimsical, soft, and alluring (traditionally sexy). The second shows the model in a much more unflattering way and realistic way.
In an interview with Huffington Post, she discusses how the media only portrays the glossy retouched versions of people and never the real images. This project seeks to challenge the abnormal construction of beauty that has developed over time by showing the ‘unedited’ version of the subject.
Similarly, her series The Things We Do features individuals looking at themselves in a mirror seemingly unaware of the viewer. We are are allowed to watch them in an intimate and private moment and witness the subject’s insecurities – or the opposite. Gracie takes away the veil of the model and makes them human.
She is currently seeking subjects (willing to pose nude, of course) for her projects Affect vs Effect, From One Egg, and llusions of the Body. Please visit her website for additional information.
View a selection of her other work below:
