This week we had to bring in a proposal for our final project and some examples of what we would be doing. This was my proposal:

“For my final project I propose a series of diptychs where I am exploring how grooming and appearance becomes an unconscious essential part of my morning routine. For a full week two photographs will be shot each morning. One will be taken as soon as I have woken up, straight out of bed and making sure I have no idea what I look like after a night’s sleep. After I have showered, gotten ready and dresses for the day I will take another photograph. This contrast deems to explore how every morning I spend time preparing and “creating” myself before others can see me. The location of where I shoot will depend if I am staying at my place, a friends or my partner’s place, showing that no matter where I am the act of getting ready for the world is very important for...

This week we needed a break and we all went for a Pot lock at Markelle’s place. It was great. I had an amazing time. here are some photos I took whilst there:

This week we had to bring in a Psychological portrait. I have been really stressed and cannot handle anything because thesis is driving me crazy. So, I decided to go to the photo booth and let go of some steam and just have fun with myself for a change. I thought they would be psychological portraits because because I actually acted out my emotions and it was a release to act on these. These were the photo booth images:

I decided to then combine them in Photoshop and create something more energetic and trying to convey my psychological state of mind and this is what I ended up with:

As a class we actually felt that the Photo booth strips put together actually became more psychological than the over lay of them.

Also, I brought in all my thesis images, good and bad, and asked the class to help me edit out any that should not make it in the body of work. I also had different...

This week I was sick and missed class. But we had to read the paper about Orlan which was pretty strange. I had really never though as the body as a canvas for art. Of course with self-portraiture the body becomes a very important part of my work, but modifying it on purpose has not been something I agree with. But I do understand where she is coming from and the critique she is making about society.

For this assignment we had to take a photo of a body part we do not like or are not comfortable with. I decided that this would be my stomach. I decided to shoot it and not Photoshop it at all. Show the raw version of it and accept it as it is. It’s not beautiful or ideal, but seeing it presented in underwear I really like made it a little bit better and less intimidating to show it to the world (class).

This week we had to re-read the Yellow paper and answer some questions that Connie drew up. This is what I wrote:

As images were concerned we could work on whatever we wanted, so I stared entertaining the idea of the Polaroid as my thesis body of work. So I re-did some of the scenes i had been doing digitally with the Polaroid. These were the ones I shot this week:

The problem I was having with this idea was that it wouldn’t be accepted as a thesis project because there were not many technical aspects to shooting through a Polaroid. So I scanned the images and created a larger version of them on Canson paper. They ended up looking like larger versions of a Polaroid on photo paper:

Because Connie wasn’t in last week, we had an open assignment. We could do a self-portrait of our choosing and didn’t have a set topic. I decided to explore new ways of doing my thesis. I started off with the idea that I would shoot with my digital camera, and then take a Polaroid photo of my digital image. This came about because it is easier to Photoshop imperfections and also see an immediate preview of what I was shooting. These were the digital images:

I didn’t quite like the digital sharpness I was getting from the digital, by my Polaroid’s focal length was not macro enough to get the image sharp enough and this is what was happening when I took a shot of my computer screen:

It was blurry and out of focus and I was not sure how I could make this work. It was suggested I really try using a Polaroid directly to shoot this and not rely on Photoshop and digital.

This week we had to read the article “Self-portrait/no face” from Training your Gaze. The article was very interesting and def. changed my perspective on how I saw a self-portrait to be. I had a few ideas I wanted to do for this, a self-portrait with no face, but after the reading I realized how important a face actually is for identity.

Some questions proposed in the article were things like “why would you photograph only some parts of your body?” , “what would this inform to your viewer?” , “could you want to do this because you don’t want your emotions to be visible on your face?”… There were many questions I was making to myself and figured out that in my self-portraits facial expressions have always been very important and that’s what I rely on to convey the message. So, what if I got rid of that?

I decided that I would create anonymous selfies for this assignment. The whole idea...

This week was Mid-term week. Before I go into the mid-term, I will briefly mention the reading we had. It was called “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. I must admit it was a very strange and weird read. It was not easy to follow, but not hard to read. I think I am still wondering if she was actually the lady in the wall paper or not. It was a very psycological story, almot like a mind teaser, engaging and confusing the reader at the same time. I guess that is what really interested me about this writing. I came to no concrete conclusion and honestly I don’t know if anyone ever did. I am sure a lot of literature annalists will have many theories, but I prefer to stay with my own interpretation, which allows me to a possibility of different conclusions. I think I liked that though because in a lot of my work I try to leave my narratives open-ended and opened to...

This week’s assignment was a lot of fun. We had to go to a real chemical photo-booth. There are not much of these around anymore, but in San Francisco there are still a few places where you can find them. Places such as Museé Mechanique or the Rayko Photo Center are good choices if you are looking for a real Photo-booth experience.

I decided to go to the Museé Mechanique firstly because i had never been there and also because they had two different booths so I wanted to try both of them. This is what I came out with:

Truth be told, I had been sick the previous week and also I was at my PMS-ing week, which really did not help me feel comfortable taking photos of myself, and in addition all the game and people noise presented at the Museé Mechanique gave me a horrible headache, but I knew i had to do the project, so decided to play on that idea and take photos where I was serious...