Artist Statement- October Progress Review

Through my art I am exploring the nature of identity by investigating the relationship between portraiture and photography. I wish to examine how we as a society have the power to immortalize ourselves through photography. I wish to look at how photography can define aspects of one’s identity.

 I have begun doing this by working with the most basic form of portraiture; identity/passport photos. With a set composition and dimensions, this allows us to look at the subject face-on. It’s an interesting form of portraiture. These 3x4 images are intended to identify us throughout the world. I am also looking at different aspects of identity and portraiture I can work with through photography. A portrait does not need to be a face alone, a portrait is a representation of a person, with the intent to display the likeness, personality or even the mood of the person. So I will step away from the more conventional portraiture. My mother always told me she believed a person’s hands were the best form for a portrait. I wish to look at different features and aspects that portray one’s identity. I plan to work with resin in the next week, solidifying my images in different materials, preserving the memory and immortalising the subjects, eternalised by some long-lasting durable material. I am also hoping to continue working with collage, photography through analog, digital and Polaroid. I have manipulated some of my portraits digitally, I hope to manipulate some more photographic images in the print room with etching and screen print.

 

I feel I have been extremely influence by the aesthetic values of Christian Boltanski’s work. In his work he aims to give life to his subjects. Through photographic images he immortalizes the forgotten. His exhibition ‘Moved’ has held a strong influence over my work, especially my prints on lens tissue. I chose lens tissue because it is delicate and transparent, I feel it helps portray the delicacy of the forgotten and the fragile nature of memory. Other artists I have been researching and who have influenced my work so far are; Sally Mann, Anna Keck, Jaochim Shmid, Tyran Simone, Roger Ballen, Pieter Hugo, Diane Arbus and Cindy Sherman. I have been researching a vast amount of artists who work in different forms of portraiture.