MIT FREDFEST 2022
"PUNKY YOUTH" - INFINITE MAGAZINE ISSUE 9 (2020)
NOT INCLUDED IN FINAL SPREAD (SOLO EDITS)
MASK REMOVAL
CAR REMOVAL
STRETCHING COLOR (2020)
MISC. PHONE SELF-TIMER (2020)
BLACK COCOON (VERANO 2020)
These are 3 samples from a series of self-portraits.
As a transmasculine person, dressing femininely, for me, is a radical choice. To wear a lacy bra, tight-fitting skirt, translucent top and tights, and vibrant makeup and to put butterfly clips in my hair are all acts that I am completely averse to in my everyday life but which I wanted to showcase here as an attempt to “prove” ownership over my personal gender identity.
It is stating that I can dress femininely and still claim/hold space for myself as a trans person. That my clothing does not invalidate my masculinity simply because others unaware of my true identity could never fathom the difference between the two / may not be aware that my externalized, artistic self-expression is not necessarily representative of my inner self.
• Photos were taken by taping phone to bedroom wall + self-timer.
• I chose to utilize overexposure, too, as a play on the idea that, by shining enough light onto something, one might be able to reveal its true character / shine through surface-level falsities (including, even, the fake freckles I had painted on).
• Unfortunately, with the amateur equipment I was using––no control over settings nor a way to view the composition while setting up the photo (I just started the self-timer and positioned myself as best as I could)––I don’t believe I managed to convey this part of my message very well.
YBOR (JANUARY 2020)
NOSTALGIA (PHOTOGRAPHED 2019, EDITED 2020)
THE YOUNGEST DOLL (2019)
Experimental photoart / self-portraiture. Based off of Rosario Ferré’s “The Youngest Doll.”
The concept is quite simple: a life-sized porcelain doll, half-seemingly alive, appears obviously out of place among the other playthings of a young girl’s childhood. These photos specifically embrace this uncanny incongruity. I spent a couple of days painting a plastic mask to look like a doll’s face, making sure to “rough up” one side in particular, as to emphasize the duality of the marriage doll in Ferré’s story. At first, it is simply a pretty toy to look at, until time reveals that there is much more to said doll than initially meets the eye.
Other features:
• Backdrop is the white backside of two rolls of dollar store wrapping paper, taped to the top of my bedroom’s closet door
• Photos taken on a borrowed DSLR (nothing too fancy) propped up by a pillow on my bed and leaning forward onto a pile of socks for the slightly-higher-than-eye-level viewpoint
• Lighting achieved by playing a “red screen” video on a small tv and angling it toward the subject
• “Bow” is a pillowcase tied into a knot and simply placed on subject’s head
• Towels used in place of actual blankets for additional texture + movement of material (thinner)
• In the background: bouquet of flowers I found and dried over a few weeks (dead flowers, of course, for thematic reasons).
• Backdrop is the white backside of two rolls of dollar store wrapping paper, taped to the top of my bedroom’s closet door
• Photos taken on a borrowed DSLR (nothing too fancy) propped up by a pillow on my bed and leaning forward onto a pile of socks for the slightly-higher-than-eye-level viewpoint
• Lighting achieved by playing a “red screen” video on a small tv and angling it toward the subject
• “Bow” is a pillowcase tied into a knot and simply placed on subject’s head
• Towels used in place of actual blankets for additional texture + movement of material (thinner)
• In the background: bouquet of flowers I found and dried over a few weeks (dead flowers, of course, for thematic reasons).
INITIAL EXPERIMENTATIONS WITH FILM PHOTOGRAPHY (35MM DISPOSABLE CAMERA)
2017, 2018
MISC. UNENHANCED IMAGES
