The "Diversity" project was inspired by a RL project I saw on Tumblr a while ago. Ten women, naked, showing the variation nature has in stock for female bodies. In SL we tweak our own shapes, select our own skin, and create our own appearance. I chose 10 of my friends for their unique way of appearance. All 10 of them defined femininity for themselves - making it very diverse to look at.All women were asked to pose topless, but other than that, no requests were made. They should use whatever accessories, hair, tattoos or jewellery they feel most at home with. Ten poses were created for the shot, loosely inspired by the poses of the RL photo, and I selected the pose fitting the model best. Some poses look a bit shy, others show very self secure femininity and nakedness.
I took about 20 photos of each avatar with different lighting settings and arranged them in a hopefully harmonic way. Countless times I shuffled the single photos until a balanced collage was achieved. I only did very subtle post processing on the images, mostly smoothing edges where the SL mesh did not have enough nodes for pleasing stretching of the skin.
I am showing you some diversity. And this is just a glimpse. There is so much beautiful diversity to be found in SL. So many people living their dreams and fantasies. Go and find out for yourself!
My thanks to (in alphabetical order): Chav, Jenn, Lectra, Marx, Natsumi, Nissa, Quest, Trinity, Uccello and Zippora
10 comments:
Could you put up a link to the original project as well, Peter? Thanks!
I would, but unfortunately I don't have the link anymore, just the downloaded photo, and I am reluctant to upload it without giving credit.
Awesome post, and I so agree - the creative and expressive aspects of SL are so great. Terrific project :)
I know an ebony girl who would have loved to be involved :)
In fact I had an ebony girl signed up, but it was a no-show in the end. I'm sorry, I did not think of you.
Thank you, Peter, for letting me participate in your project. Your professionalism and artistic intent made modeling for you very comfortable. I think that shows in each of the pictures.
I have to echo Uccies comments and I too thank you for inviting me to join this exciting peek into the diversity of Second Life.
Congratulations you deserve it =)
Bravo, Peter ... I love how it turned out :) I think you have a long "career" ahead of you celebrating much of what you find beautiful and interesting in SL ... I'll look forward to watching it develop *a hug and a kiss*
I have not seen the original, but I can imagine it and the honor it does to the human female form. I fear that this has an almost opposite effect though: for instance you have not reflected on individuality but upon the work of the artist who created the skins those were not the people but the skins that were designed in a limited fashion by someone else. Further they also showcase a particular body type (read porn star) and is vaguely insulting to the diversity of the human female form in that it neglects any body type other than big busted 20 year olds.
I think the project could be interesting, but it is in a completely different class and has a different dialog around it which falls more into the category of how messed up our body image would be if we only looked at SL (or advertising for that matter).
with love,
Rubaiyat Shatner
Rubaiyat, from a quick glance at your blog I was not sure wether you are involved in the virtual world of SL at all. A Secon Life avatar is not defined by their skin alone. And not defined by their shape alone - which the majority of my models made for themselves by the way. Building an avatar is a highly individualistic act. Most people I know create their own shapes from scratch. There is countless skin designers to chose from, and even more tattoo designers - not to mention hair and accessories. I asked the models to present themselves in a way they feel most at home with. Age - admittedly - is a problem. There are barely skin designers developing skins to display old age. I have seen a few, and they becme repetitive and stereotypical over time. As for model shapes: I think I have quite a mix in my models. From petite to busty. From athletic to rubenesque. From tomboyish to feminime.
I agree that 10 photos can only give a glimpse. As noted before a black skinned avatar is missing. So is a full neko. A cyborg. An anthropomorph like a Faun or a Centaur. Despite me knowing two lovely ones, I omitted faeries as well. Someone suggested I should make this an ongoing project - and maybe I will.
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