Alli Luihn 2020 Thesis for Ringling College of art and design titled The Burn Book of Expectations.

1. As I Developed this body of work, I wanted to focus on a topic that was dear to my heart, the representation
of the body, gender, and ethnicities through fashion photography. I achieved this while still keeping true to my
ideal image for this book with vibrant colors, costumes, and set design. The title for this body of work is
called The Burn Book of Expectations. The name was derived from the movie Mean Girls (2004), specifically,
the scenes where the girls reference a scrapbook that they created to store their opinions of rude and horrible
information about other people. My inspiration led me to take the fashion norms of the past 100 years and
depict what could have been if the stereotypes had not been in place. Furthermore, this book was created to
show the beautiful souls who are causing the most dynamic changes to the fashion industry while also
showing themselves to the world. This book aims to break through the societal norms of the fashion
photography genre.
Having been a larger woman every since puberty, I have experienced the discrimination that comes with being
a size 10. It was never easy during my youth as the rise of social media greatly influenced what beauty was. It
was difficult knowing that I would never be seen as what the world wants every woman to look like. But
learning from my struggles, I hope to show the world that real beauty comes in any shape, size, or race. I
have learned through my own experiences that social media creates a stereotype for most girls, “why don’t I
look like her?” While developing this idea, I looked at mainstream cover-art in the fashion industry from 1920
to the present day. I wanted to see how models were represented through the different decade’s trends
throughout the life of the fashion industry cover-art. In my research, I started to be influenced by
norm-breaking cover-art throughout the past 100 years. Donyale Luna is the first person of color to be
featured on a fashion magazines’ cover overseas in 1965 and referred to as the first black supermodel.
Beverly Johnson is the first woman of color to be featured on American Vogue in the year 1974. With the idea
of beauty coming in any shape, size, and ethnicity, I developed an understanding of how that idea has
changed so many people’s lives.
This project took five months to develop into what you are about to see. Spending hours of tweaking
costumes and backdrops for ten different models sparked a love for costume design that helped to elevate
my concept. I gave my photos a more Campy style, inspired by Susan Sontag, while still keeping the
traditional decades’ fashion. The themes of clothing and home décor from each decade gave inspiration in the
different ways that they were personified.
- Alli Luihn

4. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a very supportive and loving family. It’s weird because I’ve always been a
nervous person to approach people and make friends, basically an introvert. But all of that changed when I
joined a youth government group which helped me find my inner confidence to speak out in front of people
and not care if people are judging my high voice, or my nose, or any of my insecurities. From then on I started
to love people and be open and carefree. One of my main goals in life is to be that one genuine friend that
won’t have an agenda as to why I’m a friend or why I talk to them. I just want to be a good friend to everyone
because everyone is hurting one way or another. If we can all pick each other up and get through life together,
the world would be in a much better state than what it’s in now. Being an artist I want to touch people's souls
and make them feel the ethereal peacefulness that I feel when I see beautiful art. Art that makes me want to
scream in angelic glory. I know it’s such a big goal but I’ll try, and that’s all anyone can do, try.

7. For a long time, I've had a complex relationship with my appearance and the idea of taking up too much
space. As I've grown I've realized that even though the good days and the bad days, as a person my value is
greater than how I present myself. The idea of worrying so much about how I look took over my head at some
point, I got so sick of focusing so much on my appearance and how other people find me attractive. One day I
decided to shave my head and I felt so good about myself, letting go of what hides my round face. Since then
my hair has grown back and so has my new attitude towards myself. I still have hard days where I'm too in my
head but I like to push the boundaries of my look and challenge myself to find something worthy of loving
about me, no matter what. I think everyone should try to have a relationship with themselves and treat
themselves nicely, experiment with their look and overall try to love yourself how you love others.

13. My story is ever-evolving. I feel I learn something new about myself always. How I like to present, what clothes
I like to wear, how I style my hair. I got to who I am today by constantly experimenting, and I won’t be stopping
anytime soon. I came from a very lonely place where I had too much time for myself yet nothing to do. Now I
find myself with too many things to do and no time for myself because I’m always doing something. I’m using
art to shape who I am and peoples’ perceptions of me, I’m working hard to be able to do what I love for a
living. I’ve come a long way from the homeschooled loner with no friends. After years of struggling, I’m finally
happy to be myself.

14. At a certain point, I knew I had to move out of my own way. There were times in high school where I knew I
wasn't supposed to fit in, and no matter how hard I tried it never worked. My anxiety got so bad to a point
where I found myself stifled by nothing. No one was holding me back but me. Once I started to break out of
that and embrace the person I had always been, I felt a connection with my inner child that I never felt.
Teaching me whenever I come across something now that looks intimidating and makes me fear failure, I do it
anyway.

16. Growing up I was part of the percentage of children who got shamed and bullied for the way they looked. I’ve
always been what most consider “big-boned”, and even at times of good health, I was still shamed for my
figure from family and peers. I was uncomfortable in my skin for a long time because of how people made me
feel. On top of the body-shaming, I struggled immensely with my hearing, almost losing most of my hearing
doctors discovered a tumor in my left ear which destroyed my eardrum. It sucked having to act as if I could
hear everything being told me, I struggled even to hear face to face conversations. There were days where I
wanted to just give up because of how bad everything felt in life, but despite my days of despair I knew I
wanted to prove to myself that I would be able to make it through the tough times, and persisted knowing life
wouldn’t always be this bad.

19. Being a mixed homeschool kid and then
going to real high school for my Junior
year was a massive culture shock.
Suddenly I was told by everyone that I
wasn’t “black enough” but also not “white
enough either”. It caused a lot of deep
issues with how I perceived myself and
who I am as a person. I dressed drab and
in baggy clothes trying to look like I wasn’t
trying to be anyone in highschool. A lot of
people continue to dictate what I wear,
suggesting that it's just too much and to
tone it down but I think too much is just
enough. It’s taken a lot of work and only
through the love of my friends and family
have been able to accept that I'm just my
own person and the only one I need to be
enough for is “MYSELF”.

28. Acknowledgements
I want to thank everyone who participated in this project and allowed me to photograph them. Without them,
this body of work would never have finished. I also want to thank everyone who helped me behind the scene to
finish my thesis—Tom Carabasi, for believing in my idea and helping me complete this body of work. The
Class of 2020 and 2021, you know who you are for helping me with critique and pushing me with ideas. I also
want to thank Melissa Kreider for supporting me as well as helping me understand who I am and that it’s okay.
Last but not least, the models, makeup artists, thank you.
Models:
Micheal Stnley
Ale Salaman
Isa Pinto
Jiana Marita
Yari Vazquez
Sydney Jackson
Chad Luihn
Makeup Artist: Victoria Avila