Zed Nelson

I also looked closely into Zed Nelson's work on his 'Love Me' project:

i found his work highly interesting as it was based on being aware of the global obsession with beauty.His 'Love Me' project was based on how far people go to look beautiful, and more importantly, younger. His work range from some shocking images of tummy tuck operations and fat that has been removed from surgery in a jar, to images of breast implants and the consequences to taking steroids to which is 'Love Me' project has been nominated for 2011 Deautsche Borse Photography Prize. Zed Nelson currently lives in London and his work has been published and exhibited worldwide. He 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, adopting and increasingly conceptual approach to reflect on contemporary social issues. The two most famous projects that Zed Nelson has created was his 'Gun Nation' and 'Love Me' projects. 'Gun Nation reflects on America's deadly love affair with the gun as for 'Love me' reflects on the cultural and commercial forces that drive a global obsession with youth and beauty. Her has also been awarded First Prize in 2010 Picture of the Year (POY) competition in the USA for 'Love Me', Judges Special Recognition for the Best Photography Book for Love me, third Prize for 2010 World Press photo competition, first prize for Picture of the Year competition, won the Alfred Eisensteadth Award and many more.

I found his work incredibly eye-opening and shocking to view as he wanted to illustrate his work on the issue of the extent that people to go beauty. Zed Nelson illustrated this series of images because he wanted his work to "reflect on the cultural and commercial forces that drive the global obsession with youth and beauty". To create this series of images Zed Nelson went to the effort to visit 18 different countries over 5 years across 5 continents to which he photographed cosmetic surgeons, beauty queens and body builders next to original and ordinary teenagers, housewives and businessmen. He varied his work from images of spray tanning to more eye-opening images of tummy tuck operations. One image I remember was a beauty queen contest image, it was an image of a 47 year old female prisoner who was originally a tour-guide however was imprisoned for 4 years for drug smuggling in Rio, Brazil. What was the most shocking factor of this was that after all the events this woman had been through her life, beauty was still highly important to her. One factor I noticed to why people strive for beauty is because they feel they have to compete with the younger generation such as one of Zed Nelson's work of a 40 year old man having a chin and abdominal operation of "I am competing with men 20 years younger than me". Zed Nelson's intentions is to show that beauty is not as 'beautiful' as it seems to which is why he has captured images of grousom surgery and the harsh realty as he captures an image during a tummy tuck operations.

His Projects throughout the years have granted him many nominations and awards in the past as Zed Nelsons 'Love Me' project has been nominated for the 2011 Deautsche Borse Photography Prize. He currently lives in London and his work has been published and exhibited worldwide. He gained recognition and major awards as a documentary photographer working in some of the most troubled areas of the world as well as he has increasingly turned his focus on Western society, adopting and increasingly conceptual approach to reflect on contemporary social issues.Two of his most famous projects of his are probably 'Love Me' and 'Gun Nation'. 'Gun Nation' is a disturbing reflection on America's deadly love affair with the gun as for 'Love Me' reflects on the cultural and commercial forces that drive a global obsession with youth and beauty. Zed Nelson has been awards for many prizes and nominations since, he has been:

• awarded first Prize in 2010 Picture of the Year (POY) competition in the USA, for 'Love Me'
• Judges Special recognition for Best Photography Book for 'Love Me'.
• Third Prize in 2010 World Press photo competition.
• First Prize for Picture of the Year (POY) and First Prize for the Aldred Eisenteadth Award.

As well as many more.