I Need to Put My Face On, something I recall my mother saying as I watched her put makeup on in the bathroom mirror, just like she did every day. This statement never fully made sense to the younger version of myself – however it stuck with me nonetheless – not truly clicking in my brain until I became a teenager… My mother was still putting her makeup on in the bathroom mirror, however now I was doing my own makeup in front of the mirror as well.
The aim of this project did not reveal itself to me until its completion, when I was able to step back and clearly see a series on the presentation of self, just as the interaction with my mother did when she “put on her face.” For women, and other femme-presenting individuals, makeup can act as a positive form of expression – a means of empowerment – but at its core, it is an oppressive beauty standard set in a patriarchal world. Why does my mother feel the need to put on makeup every day? And why does she call it her face? This statement, though lighthearted in intention, upon dissection from a feminist standpoint, reveals a core issue affecting a vast majority of the female population: women feel lesser than when existing in the world without makeup on.
With these ironic “portraits,” I wanted to display each subject as a makeup-wearing-beauty-standard-following-individual, while the “canvas” (a makeup wipe) leaves each corresponding non-documented human subject makeupless, existing somewhere, just out of view. Intentionally leaving each “wipe donor” un-photographed calls back to the traditionally negative implications of existing makeupless in society.
Zoe Papak is an emerging creative and current student in Toronto Metropolitan University’s Photography Media Arts program. Through her blossoming career at Canada’s premier costume company, she has refined her skills in era-accurate wardrobe, combining said passions of photography and fashion in her works.
Undertaking recent projects such as a modern take on Marie Antoinette or a photobook on the contents of people’s purses, Zoe’s niche lies in emulating popular culture of the past. She is focused on both emphasizing ephemera as being important and studying the individual, in the least conventional ways possible. In her spare time, you can find Zoe nose deep in archival fashion magazines or adding to her self-proclaimed title as a cinephile.