photo by Hannah Altman
Sophomore photography major Hannah Altman’s series of images titled “And Everything Nice” has been featured on major media outlets, such as The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and Cosmopolitan.
When Hannah Altman began shooting a personal photo project in her dorm room, she had no idea the images would become internationally known around the world.
The sophomore photography major’s series titled “And Everything Nice” went viral and now been featured on BuzzFeed, Cosmopolitan, The Huffington Post and Ashton Kutcher’s A+.
In the eight images, Altman replaces women’s bodily fluids, including blood, tears and vomit, with glitter as a visual representation of the standard of female beauty.
“There have been very strong reactions to the photos,” Altman said in an email interview. “I did not expect them to be published to the extent that they have been, but I think it’s drawing attention to an important issue.”
The photos were originally posted to Altman’s Tumblr on Feb. 15 and received more than 130,000 reblogs and likes within 24 hours. As of Monday, March 23, have over 424,000.
Katie Holroyd, a sophomore advertising and public relations major and friend of Altman, said she admires how Altman portrays her feminist perspective with her work.
“I like how she incorporates that in her photos, even in low-key ways. I think that makes her stand out as a photographer,” Holroyd said in Starbucks on Sixth St. “I think she should really build a platform on that feminist viewpoint.”
Since the images are featured onmedia outlets with a large following, uninformed criticism came along with it. According to Altman, the photographs offended a lot of men and even women have called them “gross.”
“I think it further proves my point that society has been conditioned to think a certain way. Addressing the issue of beauty standards in such a frank way is bound to get a reaction out of people and get them to think,” Altman said.
Assistant professor of photography April Friges commends Altman’s use of social media as a platform to reach out to her generation.
“She’s using social media to reach out to her age group to get her points across, which I think is another way photography can exist on a different level other than a regular photography galleries,” Friges said in her office on March 23.
Seeing the images physically in print is something Friges would like to see as a next step in the series.
“I like to think about how the work can feel in a different level in physicality,” Friges said. “I would be interested to see her exhibit the work in a gallery and how she can get her work shown elsewhere locally in Pittsburgh.”
Altman said she hopes people start to acknowledge the issue.
“Publishing this series gets people to think; it calls the perception of beauty into question,” Altman said.
Altman is currently working on various personal projects and preparing for a trip overseas where she’ll be documenting Israeli artists.
“At the end of May, I’ll be traveling to Israel, which is very exciting. For a few weeks, I’ll be visiting artisan villages with other artists and shooting some documentary work about different cultural facets of Israel and Israeli artists that aren’t typical shown in Western media,” Altman said.
For more information about Altman’s work and the “And Everything Nice” series, visit her website HannahAltmanPhoto.com
photo by Hannah Altman
The photographs display the standards of female beauty using glitter as a visual representation. The model pictured has red glitter smeared on her knees, leaving the reasoning open for personal interpretation.
