The Ghost Women Project, Various Versions (Ongoing)

These first two images started it all…Found on some tattered, scraped, and mostly destroyed art posters in an alleyway behind Santa Fe Avenue in Denver, Colorado.

What do you think is the story here? Fairly obvious, I would think.

Current State of Women Series, #1 (Looking Up to Hope). Denver, Colorado

Current State of Women Series, #2 (Barbie’s Last Fashion Show). Denver, Colorado

March 20, 2016…Lets add another. Yep. It does indeed look like I have the start of a new series: The Current State of Women in the World or some such thing. I’ll have to give the project title some thought:

Current State of Women Series, #3. Mendoza, Argentina, 2016

Current State of Women Series, #3 (Sinking Into Chaos). Mendoza, Argentina, 2016

March 21, 2016. Found hidden along one of the larger canals in Mendoza, Argentina:

Current State of Women Series, #4 (The Forgotten Three). Mendoza, Argentina, 2016

March 22, 2016. The tattered poster below originally displayed the proud countenance of ex-Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, but its current state worked well for the concept of capturing something universal about some aspects of the female condition–that is, as long as you look at the vandalized female face as Everywoman and not of Kirchner in particular.

So…Those of you familiar with Argentine politics will certainly have a different reaction and the message will be more confused. Instead, you might say: “What!? She needs to be abused–right into a jail cell. Of course she stinks and we are glad she’s gone!”

My intention, though, was more general and not so narrowly focused on that one Argentine politician.

As to process, in Photoshop I used two separate photos/layers from two separate eroded posters and adjusted the opacity on the “Basta de Maltratar” layer, It was a quick job since I am on the road so I probably need to rework it with a bit more patience when I am back at the big screen desktop:

State of Women in the World Series, #4. Mendoza, Argentina, 2016

Current State of Women Series, #5 (Basta de Maltratar, or Cristina Stinks). Mendoza, Argentina, 2016

March 23, 2016. Both layers (photographs) for this composition I found within 50 meters of one another near the Biblioteca San Martín, along the Alameda, in Mendoza, Argentina: