Thinspiration, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, 2014

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3.6 – 27.7.2014
“Fotografía 2.0”, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid
Curated by Joan Fontcuberta

In the early 2000s, Thinspiration emerged as a growing online phenomenon. Images of extremely thin women, often celebrities, models or anonymous users, circulated across blogs, forums and early social networking platforms to encourage further weight loss. Many of the young women sharing these images were living with eating disorders, particularly anorexia and bulimia. Within Pro Ana communities, anorexia was reframed as a lifestyle rather than an illness, personified as “Ana” and reinforced through shared rules, rituals and visual codes such as the Thin Commandments.

Laia Abril began researching these communities in 2010 as part of her long-term project on eating disorders and their visual culture, informed by her own experience of living with bulimia. Her research focused on the emergence of social media as a new risk factor and on the central role of photography in constructing and sustaining these online communities. During this research, Abril rephotographed images found within Pro Ana networks, relocating them from their original online context to create a taxonomy of the visual culture through which eating disorders were performed, reinforced, and circulated. As self-portraits increasingly replaced celebrity imagery, the “Real Thinspiration” marked a shift towards validation and collective participation through images.

Thinspiration (2012) examines the visual language that emerged within Pro Ana communities at a time when photography and social media became central to the experience and performance of eating disorders. The work denounces the role of online image culture in normalising, aestheticising and perpetuating self destructive behaviours.