Glamour in the Blood by Debbie Castro

Debbie Castro’s ‘Glamour in the Blood’ is a series of portraits capturing the essence of Liverpool women’s identity with glamour. The project goes deeper into the history of Liverpool (UK) and the need to project an “ideal” image that has been passed down through the generations. “Women in Liverpool are the vainest in the UK – checking their appearance in a mirror up to 71 times a day, according to a new survey” – BBC News. Thousands of women in Liverpool are injecting illegal tan drug called Melanotan; this has been dubbed Barbie Drug to achieve the golden glow.

Although these women are recognised for their brash accents and eccentric style, they are also women with heart and the strength behind the family. The “Liverpudlian” man is always the puppet to the ‘scouser’ woman and is proud to show her off but the women often only dress for themselves or to impress their friends. It is a culture that is so interesting and defining. Ironically, women will walk around in the day with their hair in curlers – go for a quick ‘bevy’ while looking like this but as the sun sets would not be seen dead without their look. ‘Christian Louboutin’ has never seen so many Tescos.

There are such contrasts that I think the portraits will hopefully intrigue the viewer. This will be a series of images along with a voice recording so the viewer can listen to interviews with Liverpool women, by listening to their accent and understanding their mentality they can hopefully delve into and understand the essence of who they are. Liverpool is a very complex city which earned the title of 2008 Capital of Culture. This is very ironic; it is a city that has an undercurrent of art dying to explode but yet working class families encircling but not engaging in it. The typical scouser would live and die in Liverpool and it is their centre of the Universe.