I had this whole idea, this plan for todays description but now that I am sitting here in front of my keyboard I don't feel like being reflective... damn. Ahh well, here goes nothing
43 days ago when I started this project - no make that 50 because I was thinking about it since at least Christmas - I didn't really have a plan for it. I had no theme in mind and no purpose for completion except to give myself a creative outlet and hopefully flex and strengthen my photography muscle at the same time. I chose to make it an exercise in self-portraits for no other reason than that I am the only subject I always have on hand and the only one reliably patient enough to put up with myself... Since then however it had become increasingly apparent to me that there is an ongoing theme forming - it's me!
Okay, that sounds silly I know but please, allow me to explain.
In case you haven't been clued in by my constant soliloquy's in the description of almost every photo I publish, I do a lot of thinking - many would say too much - about this that and everything, mostly things other people in my life don't even think to question. In my opinion life is complicated, people are complicated and I find lately that I am unreasonably frustrated by many people's insistence of the contrary.
One example of this might be in our boundless ability to judge others; their intelligence, their ability to succeed, their scruples, their 'worthiness' and respectability all based upon the tiny snapshot of their lives that we ourselves have been made privy too. The internet itself of course creates the perfect storm for us to use this to our advantage, to conceal and reveal only the parts of us we wish to be seen and so to create the ideal person we wish to be. And who is to say which version is the more truthful?
In real life however we rarely have such control with the ways in which we are edited in the minds of others. First impressions count right? They set the scene for all future interactions with another human being.
I guess you could say that this project is my rebellion, my rejection of those superficial assumptions, this oversimplification of complexity. Take any photo in this set and in it you will find a self portrait that is an open and honest representation of the person I am. But the portrait is simple and two dimensional. You would be remiss to judge me by any individual portrait you see here. I have been asked since the beginning who I am, am I a girl with her teddy bear who likes to jump in puddles and run through sprinklers with her socks on? Or am I the woman in the red dress dancing on a pole and swimming naked in the backyard pool?
I reject the notion that a single photo could ever have the potential to reveal the depth and breadth of a person's being or the insight to reveal the contradictions inherent in their emotional nature. However, a collection of images may in fact be able to do just that. And so that shall be my description of this project. To build from snapshots in two dimensions a multifaceted, three diminutional whole. Not every photo need make a statement, just as not every moment in time need define you but each photo reveals a part of the person so that when taken as a whole one might see more than just the girl with her teddy or the woman emerging naked from a swimming pool.
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