Final Series

~ Thematic subject of art and cultural heritage of destruction offers the opportunity to engage with a potent image that can elicit cultural empathy, to critically examine a historical and contemporary social problem that affect the present and future, to examine attitudes and values, and to consider how art intersects with issues of power. Providing a touchstone for looking back through destruction, neglect, and reconstruction. The complexity and often overlapping issues of destruction and reconstruction fit into the importance of identity and contestation of who we are. The photographs show two perspectives, what the photographer is seeing and what the subject is seeing. Utilizing raw forms and images there’s abstract in organic subjects. Canvasing textures to obscure the true nature of the photographs, communicated with gestures and expressions, photography is obvious but creates an element of mystery. An initial reaction to photographic images often leans toward belief or trust that the picture tells a true, unbiased story. But working with the ongoing process of experimentation, altering both the way we take pictures and what we do with them post-production with manipulations and artistic renderings, photographers are able to change what is ‘true’ and decide how a final work is seen. Hiding behind dark shadows, the subject is emphasized yet seems to be disguised and almost hidden within herself. Focusing on vulnerable parts of the body, we’ll only leave it open and unprotected when we feel safe and comfortable. When we’re uncomfortable or don’t like someone, we start to pivot away as our bodies get instinctively ready to fight or flight. The way you use this in your poses can drastically impact the feeling of power in the image. It’s an idealised self on a somewhat superficial level of how we see ourselves through reflections and how others see us. Shooting specifically was the post-authentic moment, to portray the subject, both intentionally and subconsciously, as identify is fluid. As a result, the images reveal a self that is both vulnerable and performative–an effect that is not opposed to the “truth” photography. But as images become more ubiquitous, their veracity seems increasingly in question. The moment a picture is taken as an instant in which the identity becomes fractured–parts of it are “opposed” or “distorted” by the other. Grappling with this dissemination of identity,  original photos were taken and then re-captioning a few to reveal just how contrived the images or identity are.