project three: persona

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This project is a juxtaposition of two themes: the exploration of how a person creates a persona through the clothing that they wear versus an attempt to take away and neutralize that sense of individuality, with both themes within the context of a camera/subject relationship.

For the full body portraits, I prompted my subjects to show up to the photo shoot wearing an outfit that made them feel good - a pick-me-up outfit or at least something that they felt comfortable in. This was the control variable. If everyone showed up in their favorite outfit, their confidence should have been high. They wouldn't have to worry about looking goo; they already looked good to themselves. The full-body portraits were shot in color with a digital SLR because I felt color was necessary to fully capture each person's sense of style through their attire.

With that in place, each individual shoot became a little five-minute game. I would always prompt the person to relax for a minute and then ask them to start posing however they wanted. some people jumped immediately into different poses, while others suddenly became less relaxed and needed additional prompting. For the latter group I suggested poses that seemed both fun and comfortable, tailoring my suggestions to match how I perceived each person. Each pose if therefore diluted by my influence, but I think that they still get across each person's individuality.

The black and white portraits were my attempt to neutralize the persona created in the color photos by standardizing each person's representation. I made each person wear a grey sweater I had bought, and shot the pictures as passport style portraits. I recently read that human beings use the majority of their brainpower in order to process visual information, and so I made each subject close their eyes, limiting their ability to represent themselves through the camera.