My work is a psychological
exploration of self. It is a reflection of the female struggle with
self-acceptance, personal identity and the constant battle to obtain a
positive body image. I am interested in what can be hidden or revealed
through the photographic process. I use the camera as a tool to seduce
the viewer.
Women are often obsessed with their physical appearance and are constantly
striving for perfection and an unattainable cultural ideal. As a result,
many women often harbor distorted body images, experience low self-esteem,
and may deprive themselves of proper nourishment through dieting. This
in turn leads to other self-destructive behaviors. For example, concerning
womens' relationship to food, compulsive eating comes to the forefront.
Food is used in many ways to fulfill emotional needs - to comfort or to
fill a void, to suppress pain or rejection, and as a substitute for love.
My intention is to create inherently beautiful, sensual images drawn from
objects, actions or emotions that may be considered repulsive or are uncomfortable
to look at by ordinary societal standards. I'm interested in the tension
that this potentially imposes on the viewer. In filling a void
the formal composition of the image competes with the depiction of the
subject, a woman unconsciously "stuffing her face". This speaks
to an unfillable void but also becomes a metaphor for all that is over
consumed in our society. The discomfort one might feel in viewing this
triptych is used to create anxiety and provoke thought. In Tines,
the image of the giant fork, though seductive, beautiful, and somewhat
ambiguous, actually references a weapon or a tool for self-destruction.
By deliberately manipulating the shutter speed and recording long exposures
or using shallow depth of field, focusing on a seemingly unimportant element
in the photograph, I am able to create an image that would otherwise be
impossible to see. The human eye is unable to selectively focus on an
object or to see blurred motion. This phenomenon fascinates me. In the
Self-Portraits, the long exposures introduce an element of time,
obscuring my identity and instead revealing my concealed emotions.
The short looped videos are my attempt to bring an element of humor to
the work. The repeated clips of women eating various foods are juxtaposed
with the sounds of a dog eating. These anonymous women become eating machines.
Here I am documenting and commenting on an unconscious act that many women
engage in, and reflecting on a societal bias towards women who eat voraciously.
The repetitious images are repulsive and disgusting yet they are meant
to make light of the issue and cause the viewer to laugh.
My work attempts to push the boundaries of what our society considers
beautiful or acceptable, simultaneously challenging notions of the feminine
ideal and what it means for the individual to live within these imposed
standards.
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