Women behind the lens: bending over backwards for luck
The internet felt like a safe space where I could be anyone – as a vulnerable young girl who felt out of place where I lived, it helped me define my personality and interests but it also alienated me from the real world and made me hyper aware of the way I looked and existed.
After leaving home and living by myself for the first time in 2023, I developed an obsession with online self-help culture, particularly pseudo-spiritual content under the hashtag Lucky Girl Syndrome – TikToks about getting your dream life if you listen to specific audio tracks that featured elements such as 'layered frequencies', soft synths, reversed whispers and spoken affirmations. Users post clips with text saying things like: 'If you hear this, you're entering a new chapter. Expect blessings within 24h.'
I wanted to be this lucky girl who gets everything she wishes for if only she follows these rituals properly. A part of me did it ironically, but a part of me truly felt it.
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This image is part of my project, Lucky Girl Syndrome, which grew out of this deep dive into self-help online: I wanted to play with this obsession in order to detach myself from it. I created a mood board in my bedroom, covering the walls in printouts of affirmations I found online. Some of them were heartfelt, some of them came from meme pages that satirised the culture: 'I am in my safe zone'; 'I am not clenching my jaw right now'; 'Angels are watching 333'; 'I am light'; 'CLICK to be saved'.
I noticed these images of affirmations were usually paired with light orbs. These orbs look like how we want to feel: weightless, golden, gentle, magical, powerful and limitless. I wanted to create a theatre-like set where I could portray myself embodying different kinds of lucky girls – this is the yogi lucky girl who bends over backwards for luck.
The Lucky Girl Syndrome project is an interrogation of the economy of hope where girls like me find solace in using our devices and bedrooms as portals to wellness and self improvement. But it's also part of my wider body of work where I am interested in questioning who and what the female form exists to serve. Growing up in a culture where our beauty is our worth, so much so that cosmetic surgery is normalised but Catholic morality still dictates ideas of gender roles, family and sexuality, I became attuned to how online self-help culture repackages control as empowerment, especially for women.
Isabella Madrid is a Colombian artist and photographer
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The Sun
44 minutes ago
- The Sun
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FOR most people, doodling is a harmless distraction. But for Sam Cox it became a dangerous obsession that led him to believe Donald Trump wished he'd graffiti his 'big, beautiful wall.' 6 6 The Kent artist became a worldwide sensation in 2017 when a video of him using a marker pen to draw over a shop gained 46 million views in a week on social media. Soon Sam's doodles were selling for a million dollars and big name brands such as Adidas and Samsung commissioned him. That provided the funds to buy a £1.35million mansion, which the 31-year-old compulsive creator wanted to draw all over. Working for 36 hours without sleep, though, sparked a major mental health breakdown in which he believed he was his alter ego Mr Doodle. Sam thought his mum was Nigel Farage and that US President Trump asked him to doodle all over the planned 2,000 mile wall between Mexico and the USA. A new documentary on Channel 4 reveals how he had to be held down by six burly nurses after being sectioned in late February 2020. His delusions included fearing the doctors were trying to poison him and that his parents were trying to kill him. Sam, who has now recovered, tells The Sun: 'I think in black and white. 'I felt I had to be the character. 'It was becoming more 100 percent or nothing. Artist at war with council over plan to build seaside home laser cut with DOODLES in 'Britain's only desert' 'When I was sectioned it was really frightening. 'In my mind it was like being in the Truman Show. 'I thought everyone was conspiring against me. 'I felt like I was in a game. 'You think health professionals and even family and friends are trying to hurt you. 'Donald Trump or other celebrities took the place of other patients in the hospital for me. 'I remember thinking my mum was like Nigel Farage.' 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But getting other people enthused about his art was not so easy. Dressed as Mr Doodle he found few customers willing to buy his A4 sized individual sketches for one pound each. Gradually, though, he started to earn money by having his creations on clothes and buildings. It was a video of his doodling on a pop up shop in Old Street in east London in 2017 that skyrocketed his reputation. Images of his work also attracted the attention of Ukrainian artist Alena and they started chatting online. Sam, whose mum thought he was so obsessed with his art that he'd never get married, kissed his love interest as soon as they met up for the first time in Berlin, Germany. He recalls: 'It was one of the first times I wasn't really drawing and it felt like a good experience.' 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'I proudly say how my art doesn't have a social message. 'I like it when people smile about it.'
The Sun
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- The Sun
I went on the bucket-list Intrepid tour with world-famous beaches, legendary football and 80p cocktails
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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Champagne corks can't shake Anisimova's grasscourt groove
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