Switcheroo couples

After being given the street style photo essay brief during a seminar a few weeks ago, my mind wondered as to how I could make my own work be unique and stand out. Whilst looking for inspiration, I came cross a Canadian photographer, Hana Pust, whose work really does use irony and humour to create a memorable impact to viewers.

Although it's not unheard of that we may borrow our other half's baggy t-shirts, jumpers and tracksuit bottoms to lounge around it, this project completely switches things up. The project, entitled 'Switcheroo' shows couples street style, before completely swapping outfits to re stage the image, and the results are hilarious. But is interesting how these images also raise an aspect of gender identity. By looking through a range of images from the project, it's clear to see that many of the women look completely natural in their man's clothes, however the men look somewhat uncomfortable and really break the idea of 'normal'. 

I think that this says a lot about our perceptions of gender identity and what is acceptable as a social norm. Why is it that women can look very cool and fashionable in masculine clothing, but men look completely ridiculous in feminine outfits. In my opinion, there should be no difference, and this project says a lot about the pressures on men to dress a particular way. We often hear in the media that there is too much pressure on females to look and dress a certain way, but there is never really an issue mentioned with males. But if any of these men in the images were to step out their front doors dressed in these girly clothes, they definitely would get some strange looks and ridicule from their mates! I believe that men suffer the same (if not more!) peer pressure to follow certain fashion trends, and I don't think that anyone should ever feel uncomfortable to wear whatever they want! I think more emphasis needs to be put on this sexual identity issue to make others aware of the issues males face when it comes to fashion styling, and I really enjoyed how this Switcheroo project raises these issues and awareness about the subject.

Why not take a look at some more of the Switcheroo project below!

#fcpreflection