Make Me Beautiful

© Yufan Lu - Cosmetic surgery diagnosis 1 © Yufan Lu - Inside the consulting room at a cosmetic surgery clinic, Beijing, China © Yufan Lu - Inside the consulting room at a cosmetic surgery clinic, Beijing, China View all images ↓
View all images ↓

I took my portrait to the cosmetic surgery clinics to have my face examined. I wore masks made of other women's pre-surgery portraits, and removed our facial features. I made glass 'death masks' from these unwanted faces with my hand to express sympathy.

I grew up witnessing the burgeoning cosmetic surgery industry, surrounded by judgements about my own appearance, feeling a strong connection to the millions in China who were reportedly seeking aesthetic transformation. I turned to photography as a means to confront my anxieties about my looks, the societal beauty ideals, and explore the mechanisms behind the cosmetic surgery scene in China.

I visited over thirty cosmetic surgery clinics with my self-portrait. The consultants there, who called themselves "beauty designers", used a variety of tools to assess my face, and map out surgery plans on my portrait. In an authoritative tone, they meticulously pointed out my facial "flaws". Sometimes, they immediately let me choose from the most popular prototypes of desired faces, like choosing products from a shelf. They told me that a face could be a "permit" to my dream life…I smelled my desires and weaknesses.

While 'collaborating' with the clinics on the diagnosis portraits, I photographed their interiors, which features an ambiguous coexistence of medical and commercial elements. I also collected pre-surgery portraits of people who have undergone cosmetic surgeries, taken by clinics and posted on cosmetic surgery portal websites for promotion, covered with the websites’ watermarks. Despite being photographed in an objective manner, they reveal to me a mixture of feelings from melancholy to puzzlement, hope, restlessness, determination, nostalgia...They remind me of death masks used to preserve faces after death, post-mortem photography, or all photographs that are indexical of mortality. I removed the watermarks from the portraits, transformed them into masks that I wore, and added new watermarks featuring Chinese words associated with appearance shaming on both our faces. And, inspired by the 'portrait-robot' - a tool used by 20th century police to create facial composites of criminal suspects, I removed our facial features, which is both a documentary of faces stigmatized, and a resistance against the social gaze. I also cut patterns on my portraits, 'transplanting' their experience onto me. At this moment, they are me and I am them.

© Yufan Lu - Cosmetic surgery diagnosis 1
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Cosmetic surgery diagnosis 1

© Yufan Lu - Inside the consulting room at a cosmetic surgery clinic, Beijing, China
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Inside the consulting room at a cosmetic surgery clinic, Beijing, China

© Yufan Lu - Inside the consulting room at a cosmetic surgery clinic, Beijing, China
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Inside the consulting room at a cosmetic surgery clinic, Beijing, China

© Yufan Lu - Image from the Make Me Beautiful photography project
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The staff at a cosmetic surgery clinic in Beijing, China, invited me to do a skin test. The machine took photos of my face and analyzed that I have very serious skin problems.

© Yufan Lu - Cosmetic surgery diagnosis 2-6
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Cosmetic surgery diagnosis 2-6

© Yufan Lu - Cosmetic surgery diagnosis: pure and innocent face
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Cosmetic surgery diagnosis: pure and innocent face

© Yufan Lu - Cosmetic surgery diagnosis: Internet celebrity face
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Cosmetic surgery diagnosis: Internet celebrity face

© Yufan Lu - Cosmetic surgery diagnosis: 3D modeling face. The diagnosis is made by AI.
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Cosmetic surgery diagnosis: 3D modeling face. The diagnosis is made by AI.

© Yufan Lu - Inside the consulting room at a cosmetic surgery clinic, Tianjin, China
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Inside the consulting room at a cosmetic surgery clinic, Tianjin, China

© Yufan Lu - Inside the waiting room at a cosmetic surgery clinic, Beijing, China
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Inside the waiting room at a cosmetic surgery clinic, Beijing, China

© Yufan Lu - Image from the Make Me Beautiful photography project
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Inside the a cosmetic surgery clinic, Beijing, China. The staff there named the staircase "time tunnel". It connects the consulting rooms on the first floor and surgery rooms on the second floor.

© Yufan Lu - Obsession
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Obsession

© Yufan Lu - Image from the Make Me Beautiful photography project
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I wore masks made of these women's pre-surgery photos, added new watermarks featuring Chinese words associated with appearance shaming on both our faces. I removed our facial features, which is both a documentary of faces stigmatized, and a resistance against the social gaze. Watermark meaning: hard to look

© Yufan Lu - Watermark meaning: monster
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Watermark meaning: monster

© Yufan Lu - Watermark meaning: minus score
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Watermark meaning: minus score

© Yufan Lu - Image from the Make Me Beautiful photography project
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I hand-made these fragile glass 'death masks' from women's pre-surgery photos. These facial features are death masks because they technically do not exist anymore after the surgery. I recreated these faces out of my desire to preserve the unwanted faces. Through hand-making, I experienced sympathy and care to these women that I have never met.

© Yufan Lu - A glass sculpture made of five cosmetic surgery diagnosis images
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A glass sculpture made of five cosmetic surgery diagnosis images

© Yufan Lu - I also cut patterns on my portraits, 'transplanting' those women's experience onto me.
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I also cut patterns on my portraits, 'transplanting' those women's experience onto me.

© Yufan Lu - I also cut patterns on my portraits, 'transplanting' those women's experience onto me.
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I also cut patterns on my portraits, 'transplanting' those women's experience onto me.

© Yufan Lu - They are me and I am them.
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They are me and I am them.

Make Me Beautiful by Yufan Lu

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