The Wallflower Project

wall·flow·er noun /wôl-flou(-ə)r/  ‍‍‍‍2. A person who has no one to dance with or who feels shy, awkward, or excluded at a party The body of work entitled, “The Wallflower Project”, examines the social stigma of being a “wallflower” through the use of portraits created with a cardboard pinhole camera. Although I never thought of myself as a "Wallflower", I started thinking about the social stigma after a conversation with another artist at a party. She had told a story about how she would enter a party and everyone would look at her husband - not her. I, too, had experienced this at social events. My husband and I would be talking in a group and all of the attention would be on my husband, who many think is an actor. I happily would observe the exchange allowing myself to fade into the background. With this project, I wanted to bring the Wallflower to the forefront - not by taking straight portraits of them, but portraying the fading “Wallflower" by merging the model with a wallpaper background. The resulting images create a ghostly portrait that requires the viewer to take notice and spend time to see the person before them.