A New York-based artist, Phillip Toledano, has unveiled a collection of portraits of people who have undergone extensive plastic surgery in a bid to make us question our views on conventional beauty.
Phillip Toledano’s A New Kind Of Beauty photography coffee table book contains chiaroscuro-style photographs of men and women displaying protruding ‘pout trouts’, wrinkle-free ‘pillow faces’, rhinoplasty (nose job) and breast and pec implants.
However, these semi-nude images aren’t intended to shock - but instead to challenge what people view as beautiful.
Talking about his work, Phillip explains: “I believe we are at the vanguard of a period of human-induced evolution. A turning point in history where we are beginning to define not only our own concept of beauty, but of physicality itself.
“Beauty has always been a currency, and now that we finally have the technological means to mint our own, what choices do we make? Is beauty informed by contemporary culture? By history? Or is it defined by the surgeon’s hand?
“When we re-make ourselves, are we revealing our true character, or are we stripping away our very identity?
“Perhaps we are creating a new kind of beauty. An amalgam of surgery, art and popular culture.”
Take a look for yourself…
Images by Phillip Toledano.