Assignment Four - Rework
In particular, he approved the use of my personal voice and was able to grasp, as a viewer, the themes developed in the images (family, old memories in old rooms, my childhood, doppelganger, the search for identity).
We had a talk on the meaning that, although the work also develops from the doppelganger theme, I included in the set three images where the clones are three.
I was inspired by the work of Cornelia Hediger (the photo of the artist exhibited in the assignment confirms this), by the desire to represent a path of the subject within the boundaries of the single image, and research of effective composition.
As suggested by the Tutor, this choice can overcome the concept of doppelganger and introduce that of "multiple/infinite/separate selfs" that I could develop further (assignment 5?).
As suggested by my tutor, I also deepened the work on family portraits made by Thomas Struth, of which I wrote a post: from the research on this author I found elements of analogy and reflection for this assignment and for assignment 5.
Posing is also appreciated and we agreed on the choice to keep the photo captions simple and "commercial-like", compared to the complexity and emotionality of the image.
Overall my communication project through images was successful and complete and now I can decide, for the next assignment, to expand this theme or to develop something completely different. Elements of success: the rooms, the poses of the subject, the composition.
The formative feedback substantially confirmed what emerged during the video call.
Assignment 4
Introduction
Initially, I found myself disoriented.
Although I am a professional of the digital world and an avid reader of science fiction and cyberpunk, or perhaps, for this reason, I have never been involved in digital culture and I am certainly not social or virtual-oriented.
In my personal sphere, the theme of identity has an "analog" meaning, linked to memory and place. So I decided to articulate my personal voice in relation to digital culture by affirming these principles. I could title this work process not so much "looking for digital identity" as "looking for identity with digital".
In the mind map that I developed, I identified the cloning technique and photomontage as tools to tell a story of research of my identity in the communion between the childhood place (the family home) and the memories.
My father was not happy with the decision: my mother convinced him that the family home would remain at their disposal, whenever they wanted to return.
The house remained as it was when my parents lived there: the family home.
After two years my father fell ill, and then, last November, passed away.
From that moment my mother felt that she had lost all ties with the big house and began to insistently ask that it be emptied and then sold or rebuilt. I think my mother wants that house not only emptied of furniture and objects, but also of memories.
For us, two sons and one daughter, it is a difficult task, both from a practical and an emotional point of view. Personally, I don't like to go back to that house and see that it smells of absence every time a bit more.
As the memories evaporate, so does its soul.
Every time I return to those rooms, I make a mental inventory not of things but of the memories that these things recall. I believe that when I behave like this, I'm not just looking for memory, but that part of my identity that was born and raised in that house.
I thought of condensing my periodic visits into some images.
Before it all fades away.
Development of the idea
It may sound bizarre to represent the pursuit of the past using today's shooting and digital manipulation techniques.
However, the techniques I have decided to use produce the same visual result as photographers of the analog era such as Henry Peach Robinson in 1862, Oscar Gustave Rejlander in 1917, Diane Arbus in 1963 or the more recent Jeff Wall in 1979 and Cornelia Hediger in 2009.
The latter artist, with her duology "Doppelganger", tells the story of the relationship between her and her mother and has particularly inspired me.
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| Cornelia Hediger, from "DOPPELGÄNGER II" https://www.corneliahediger.com/doppelgangerII/slides/06.html (accessed on 12/12/2021) |
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| Oscar Gustave Rejlander, "Rejlander Introduces Rejlander the Volunteer", 1871 https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1394103/rejlander-introduces-rejlander-the-volunteer-photograph-rejlander-oscar-gustav/?carousel-image=2017KA5286 (downloaded on 12/12/2021) |
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| Jeff Wall, "Double Self-portrait", 1979 https://www.artsy.net/artwork/jeff-wall-double-self-portrait (accessed on 12/12/2021) |
I tried to unify in one image, through cloning and photomontage, the set of several images of me in the act of visiting some rooms of the family home.
I learned to use photoshop and layer overlay techniques as close as possible to the process that was used for analog photography, overlaying the negatives.
As for the composition, I was inspired by authors such as Wendy McMurdo. In some images, I was inspired by the pose and expression between the sad and the hypnotic of Gregory Crewdson's subjects.
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| Gregory Crewdson, "Untitled", from "Dream House", 2002 https://www.berggruen.com/exhibitions/gregory-crewdson/artworks?view=slider#7 (accessed on 12/127/2021) |
Before it all fades away
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| Entrance |
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| Studio |
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| Reading Room |
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| Kitchen |
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| Bedroom |
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| Guestroom |
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| Sitting Room |
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| Fireplace |
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| Diningroom |
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| Tavern |