Vanessa Omoregie’s Camgirls Project , which we first learned about on Beautiful/Decay and Animal, “looked at themes of questioning ‘beauty’ standards, ideas of censorship, and representation in art,” while investigating how the camgirl’s image is perceived in the realm of the Internet. Women were invited to submit their photos, mimicking the poses of nude women in classical paintings. “I really love Botticelli’s Birth of Venus and looking at paintings from similar artists and around that time I found more paintings depicting Venus and other women,” Omoregie said of the series. “They’re kind of heavenly and heavily romanticized visions of beauty in women, which was interesting to me.” Omoregie’s goal was to open a non-judgmental dialogue about women who choose to go in front of the camera. “It’s about trying to understand why these paintings of women do not get the same reaction, censorship, and labels of vanity and obsession that pictures of girls on the Internet do,” she explained. “Especially pictures that girls have taken of themselves.”
