Meaghan Welch

2023 Senior Exhibition Artists

Meaghan Welch

Art + Design: Photography

About Meaghan Welch

Meaghan Welch is a photographer based in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. She received her BFA in Photography from the College of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 2023. Her work encompasses a wide range of genres including portraiture, landscape and event photography. She is always eager to explore new styles and techniques. Recently, Meaghan has developed a strong interest in fashion and portrait work after studying photography throughout her college career. In her portraiture, Meaghan strives to capture the essence of her subjects and to reveal their innermost selves.

Statement

Throughout my photography practice, portraits have been my main interest. I love capturing the essence of a person. I have recently discovered an interest in portraying fashion and beauty within photography, specifically, creating images that draw attention to color, texture, and motion. Unfortunately, many women consistently place stress on themselves when it comes to looks and conventional beauty. Based on examination of ad campaigns for beauty products, the bar on beauty standards is set extremely high.

For decades, women have been influenced by the unrealistic portrayals of women they see everywhere, and this affects them physically and mentally. Today digital retouching is the new norm, but it is still affecting the self-esteem of women and girls. For example, in 2010, Gabourey Sidibe was on the cover of Elle magazine and the editors were accused of editing her skin to look lighter, and heavily cropped the photo to hide her plus-size shape, which lowered her confidence and made her self-conscious, according to interviews she gave afterward.

Many women feel compelled to perfect/change themselves to live up to unrealistic standards. This is a mindset created by advertising in general to make one purchase more and more products to improve oneself and “fit in” to the current beauty standards that the media and beauty industry encourage. This leads to millions of women getting cosmetic surgery, laser hair removal, and countless physical alterations.

My final project consists of digital photographs of models dressed up in one monochromatic look. I will be utilizing a wide range of colors across the spectrum. Flowers are the main prop I employ, as they are perhaps the most consistently used symbol of youth and beauty that exist. For example, roses have long been used as symbols for love and beauty. They are also typically present in advertisements aimed at women within the beauty and wellness industries.

My goal is to show that in order to feel beautiful, my models are attempting to look and feel like they need to “fit in” with the idealized women they see in popular culture, in addition to their peers. In each photo, the clothing, background and makeup will be all one color to emphasize their attempts at conforming to these ideals. Their makeup will be visible in varying degrees of extravagance.

At the conclusion of this project, I hope to have an extensive portfolio of images showing the conflicted nature of acceptance of beauty standards for women as they try to fit into impossible and artificial ideals. They know the standards are artificial and often unattainable, but they try to emulate them anyway.