Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Self Portraiture

Two things:
First, this is an image from Yosemite. I took it with my Nikon 35mm camera. The light was bright and muted that day.
Second, Here is my proposal.

The content of this project will be an exploration into self-portraiture. I am fascinated by identity and my role in the world surrounding me. I would like to work with 4x5 film, in a studio setting. I will develop the 4x5 negatives in the dark room. I am going to incorporate the digital medium to embellish the self-portraits with digital color pictures that represent other aspects of my life, and up-brining. The final images will be color and black and white, on black matt paper. The images inserted into the black and white portraits will be things such as my orchid’s flowers and agates I collected from the beach. I will photograph them in color with a digital camera. This project will be an exploration of self, and the challenges that arise with self portraiture. There are aspects to my ethnicity that play a large role in my life which deserve expression in an artistic medium. I want the images to be thought provoking, and invite the viewers to reflect upon the external environments that have helped define their view and interpretation of the world. 

There are different ways of exploring the ideas surrounding stereotypes mixed with identity and defining aspects of personality. Being raised in a bi-cultural home environment I have felt different and out of place in main stream American culture.  I would like to use this project to investigate my self image, and my relationship to the aspects of my environs that define me. 

For the time line, by the first critique I plan to have three of my final eight images done by March 12, and at least six done by April 14th.  I am considering making a coffee-table style book with four diptych sets of images. I am going to make the book and use the exterior and page paper as an extension of the investigation of the self and the environment surrounding. I will also research other self portraiture artists to expand my ideas.

2 comments:

dvisser said...

Hey there, Kate. Each time I open this - no matter which compute I use - the font color you chose is illegible. Can you edit the post and change the color?
dv

Modesto Covarrubias said...

Are you sure a studio setting will suffice? I get the feeling that perhaps taking self-portraits in a specific setting or set of settings would also be able to convey this notion of "otherness" that you seem to be referring.

Also please consider carefully how you begin to show your uneasiness with the American mainstream. How do you show "out of place" within an image? You may have to consider objects or clothing choices or even furniture in order to set off a notion of "otherness."

You may want to check out how other artists have pushed the notion of "otherness" within the US. There were several artists in the recent show at UC Berkeley entitled "One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now" that pushed the notion of "otherness" and stereotypes of cultures within the US mainstream culture (malls, food, etc.) If you can get the catalog, it may help you.

-M
Modesto