Blog Post 5

In the article “Body Painting,” published in PSA Journal, the author Ayman Lofty discusses the body art and how it's represented in photos. He also states how tattoos became "an expression of people's loves, a symbol or even an image of what they really liked, recorded on their own bodies," (Pg. 1). Body art started a long time ago when ancient people started painting on their bodies and faces as apart of their culture. Body art became a big interest of photographers. They used it for creative shooting because the way the paint looked on the body exposed and represented all of the different cultures and live styles of people. Artists who specialize in body painting found different techniques that could be used on the human body to represent creative ideas. That is how body painting changed from celebrative art to creative art. A major issue is that photography is thought of as more of a way to document memories than as an artistic tool. Modern body painting has reduced the gap between photography and body painting which caused people to understand photography's used of the art line. One photographer merged both arts together. He used his model's body as a canvas to achieve the ideal image. A small spotlight is used to capture the emotion in the body paintings. The Egyptian Minister of Culture and the head of the Fine Art Sector in Egypt has shown extreme admiration body art and requested an exhibition for the photographs to represent the different nations around the world.

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I think body art is really cool, mostly if it involves one's culture. Us Americans mostly get a tattoo because it looks cool or actually has a meaning to us. People around the world mark their bodies in different ways to represent how they are as a person or to represent their culture. All of the different types of body arts around the world fascinates me. It's really cool how certain designs represent a certain culture or expresses how a person feels. A lot of people use body painting instead of tattooing to show their culture. It's really cool how the photographers use body painting as symbols for their photos. They design the body paintings to express certain emotions in the pictures. It makes everything very dramatic, especially with the way they use their lighting.