“AFFIXED” 

SUMMARY

“Affixed” is an analog film photo series consisting of portraits and self portraits from 2017. The images were shot on a Yashica medium format camera in studio, and then were personally developed by myself in the darkroom. “Affixed #3” (the last of the series) was selected in the Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition in 2018. Submitted works were juried by Angela Lombardi, the education and outreach coordinator from Artspace, in Raleigh, North Carolina. “Affixed #3” was one of 40 pieces of artwork selected out of 149 entries that year, and was chosen to receive the Cleta Johnson Award.

ARTIST STATEMENT

The concept of twinship is one that remains mysterious to society. A special sibling dynamic that has been likened to oddities of clairvoyant quality, not only fascinates but perplexes those that encounter twins. Often viewed as clones of one another, twins face a lifetime of struggle in creating an identity that is their own while constantly being reminded that they are incomplete without their identical counterpart.

Having experienced this struggle every day for over two decades, I not only have found it difficult to prove my individuality to a society that views me as a binary human, but also experience an emotional battle of feeling like a burden to my sister. Sometimes it feels as if I am her shadow, permanently pursuing, and forever linked, to her. It seems as though she is not free to be her own singular person.

Through this photo series I have portrayed our reality; the one society has created for us. Whether I am with her in physical presence or she is reminded of me through her own reflection, we are affixed. By taking her portraits and my own self-portraits with the aid of mirrors, I was able to demonstrate the parallelism of our identities. Employing the use of dark colors, shadows, and contrast I hope to relay to viewers the obscurity and psychological effect of twinship which makes individuality a foreign concept.

Twins face a lifetime of struggle in creating an identity that is their own. Whether the two are together in physical presence or simply reminded of one another through their own reflection, they are affixed. Shadow and reflection convey the parallelism of identities and the psychological effect of twinship.

“YOUR BEAUTY”

artist statement

“Your beauty is rooted so deep within you, you can’t help but see it everywhere.”— Rupi kaur

This stanza from an untitled work by Rupi Kaur inspired a photo series that documents the evolution of self love and discovering natural beauty. My goal was to create portraits of young women that incorporated the use of flowers and greenery to convey that this progression and growth is natural, infinite, and beautiful.

As opposed to the visual noise of a busy background, by employing the use of heavy shadow, contrast, and rich colors, the eye of the viewer should be directly drawn to the beauty of the subject.