PROJECT TYPE Editorial Designhfjgbjkdr
Publication Research
YEARefdfd 2025
Watch Me Cry is a visual essay presented as a book, developed as my major research project for the MA in Graphic Media Design. It explores the aestheticisation of female sadness in contemporary visual culture, questioning how women’s emotional expression is shaped, contained, and rendered visually appealing, and asking why sadness must still appear beautiful to be seen.
Grounded in feminist visual theory, the project draws on concepts such as John Berger’s idea of self-surveillance and Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze. Within this framework, beauty operates as a mechanism of control, shaping not only how women are seen but how they learn to see themselves.
The book combines personal, diary-style writing with curated imagery from film, art, and social media. Each spread is built from fragments of text, with images selected and positioned to either reinforce or disrupt the emotional tone. Rather than explaining the idea directly, meaning is constructed through association, allowing patterns of representation to emerge gradually across the publication.
The book also incorporates autoethnographic material through self-produced images and performative documentation. By placing myself within the visual language being examined, the work moves from observation to participation, testing how these aesthetic conditions are internalised and reproduced. This introduces a personal layer to the publication, grounding the research within lived experience rather than distant critique.
The book's design uses sequencing, repetition, and shifts in scale to build meaning over time. Visual echoes are created across spreads, while disruptions in layout and image placement challenge expectations of how emotion is presented. This approach positions the reader between recognition and discomfort, gradually revealing how sadness is aestheticised and regulated within visual culture.