Her most famous series is titled "Series", later to be renamed to "Series 1" after making a "Series 2". Both works include woman (sometimes men?) doing sometimes normal, but mostly unusual activites, like lying face down in the snow, posting post-its all over the house. None of them include the women's faces, therefore it's difficult to tell if the images sometimes have men rather than woman.
This is what she has to say on her series,
My project Stories originated as a way to merge my interest in writing with photography. The work is influenced by the formal qualities of short fiction and its tendency to focus on a single mood or event. Like a photograph, the short story is an exercise in brevity; they both exist as concise pieces that are at once resolved and unresolved.
My images are meant to be vignettes, presented as isolated fictional experiences. They are also filled with contradictions and ambiguities: the domestic settings can be seen as both comforting and confining; the scenarios presented have elements that are realistic and surreal; the nameless, faceless character presented in the images is both the subject and the photographer; the work is continually shaped by the convergence of the Decisive Moment and staged photography.
My hope is that the viewer becomes an active reader of the narratives presented as I continue to question the ability of storytelling within a fixed frame.
Her work to me seems very young and very playful. I love the colors and the lighting. She can create beautiful soft lighting and make the view take the subject less seriously. For example, the photo of the woman lying in the leavces would be quite depressing with somber lighting, but, but with the soft lighting, it seems like a petty or simple sadness that drove the woman to just into the leaves like that.
The third photo looks like the person is rooted in the tree! It's kinda cool!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy the use of similar colors. The yellow of the dress works very well if the natural light. Her works on the sticky notes almost seem like an abstract documentary. I don't know if I get it but once again a nice use of colors.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is interesting to crop out the faces and leave the figure anonymous, it may make them more relatable, although I'm not sure I've ever felt the need to lay face down in a pile of leaves.
ReplyDeleteI really don't think showing people's faces in these photos is necessary, just because there are so many other visually interesting things going on in the photos. The second photo (with all the post-its) is so colorful, interestingly lit, and oddly composed with the depth of field the way it is, that I would've found a face in the photo rather distracting from everything else that's interesting about it. It makes me wish I could come up with something so cool.
ReplyDeleteThese photographs have a very soft feel to them, utilizing an interesting field of focus helps effect along. I'm definitely liking these, not only for their interesting approach to self-portraiture, but also for their ability to direct the narrative in an effective manner.
ReplyDeleteThese aren't my favorite photographs I have seen. They appear boring and static, and I don'† really leave with any emotions.
ReplyDeleteI don't really understand what shes trying to convey in her images although i do find them very beautiful compositionally & lighting wise. the top two seem to fit in the series because of the excessive cropping but the bottom one seems a bit out of place. i understand that the face isn't shown like in the above images but it has a very different feeling. depressing at first glimpse, but beautiful after taking in the color & lighting. overall interesting but a bit confusing.
ReplyDeleteshallow depth of field works to isolate the scene as a "vignette". quirky images that make me look at everyday in a new way.
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