Natalie Strohmaier

The series "Unattainable Beauty" addresses the unrealistic ideals of beauty that continue to be conveyed through advertising and social media, despite contrary movements in recent years. The perfect representations of the advertising industry create pressure to conform to a certain body type or fashion standards. To address these absurd ideals of beauty, which are hard to escape in everyday life, artificial creatures have been created from flowers - the symbol of beauty and youth par excellence - that pose like models in front of the camera. The new "superflowers", which are obviously not naturally grown, represent an unattainable beauty that has been artificially created. The fascinating creatures seduce the viewer with their unusual appearance and at the same time raise questions about the manipulative flood of images in advertising and social media, but also about the artificial optimization of outward appearance in general.

All of the "flower models" have been assembled by hand from different cut flowers and potted plants and were photographed in the studio. Some of the plants and flowers were sewn or pinned together using pins, which were later retouched.