The SPECTRA eye pigment changes colour on camera, playing with the boundary between physical and digital reality.

It gives an insight/idea of the beauty standard at the time, which is to be eternally youthful, pure/hairless.

through their racial reatures - has been practised in different cultures across time. When this German compendium was published. phsioanom was widely accepted in Europe, even taught at universitv Chinese physiognomic face-reading similarly linked beauty with good character and fortune (not to be mistaken with medical face-reading that correlates features with symptoms).

Our brains are optimised to read faces. Evolutionists believe that being able to extract information through facial cues is key to survival. But the process can produce huge biases and inaccuracies - beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.

In 2021, the skin lightening industry was valued at US $9.96 billion.

Economic advantages are often skewed towards lighter skinned people.

The preference for lighter skin also operates interpersonally. In terms of favouritism and desirability

Vanitas are works of art intended to remind the viewer of the shortness of human life, the uselessness of vanity and the certainty of death. This example features many symbols typical for this type of object, such as a skull and insects that feast on decaying flesh.

Materials: Cloth and wax

Words and Quotes: Life and death, Shortness of beauty

Elgin American, designed by Salvador Dali 1950s, US

Gold-plated metal, mirror glass

"It doesn't do enough to make reparations for the untold mental and emotional damage done by colourism," a prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, often among people of the same ethnic group.

“To me, the essence of truly modern makeup is the freedom to be yourself to express who you are“

The intended message of this imagery was likely to mock the central figure as a 'lustful old woman', inappropriately concerned with her appearance. However, we can alternatively read it as a self-assured woman taking pleasure in the beauty of her post-menopausal body.