Morphosis

The dualistic portraits discuss the dichotomy between the personal desire to be seen and the power and judgement of the viewer. The images are somewhat banal, pictures everyone has already seen. Undressed of all other visual information outside the obvious, forcing one to focus on external looks alone. I introduce the viewer to a set of different real life characters that adopt two roles: a hypothetically private one and a more made up version they actually want to present themselves as in their daily life or online. I approached the people by asking them how they interpret bareness and vulnerability and if they allow the camera to document it. Which face is the real one, and are the pictures lying to you in the first place? The final images in their obtrusive visual simplicity and repetition explore issues of gender and the fine line between artificiality and authenticity by calling into question the influence of mass media over our individual and collective identities. But eventually ”Morphosis” is not as much about the personal identities of people photographed as it is about the constructs behind portraiture and the way we form opinions and judgements based on information that can be extremely arbitrary, simplistic and stereotypical. I agree with Diane Arbus who said a photograph is a secret about a secret: the more it tells you, the less you know.