IDENTITY
“It's not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame and self-loathing—they are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me.”
HIDDEN IDENTITY-
For this project I was fascinated by the topic hidden identity and the many ways to explore societal expectations, insecurity, embarrassment, loneliness, acceptance and how each other subcategory (gender, digital, cultural, etc) of identity can link to this. In modern day society, this is such a relevant and urgent conversation as we often find ourselves hiding our true selves or altering things about ourselves to feel more respected or included. This is true for appearance, personality, nationality, social status, and many other things that we are most often unaware of. In a world where comparison and shame are so pertinent and we are placed, almost from birth, under overwhelming pressure to be a certain way, it is so important to return back to yourself and embrace your authentic self. Art and photography is an interesting way to represent these things while experimenting and creating complex and beautiful pieces of work. I'm inspired by the way each artist uses their own approach and style to make each image so relatable and also aesthetically pleasing.
I have many questions that I wanted to research as well as explore throughout my work: people's perspectives and personal experiences are so interesting and crucial in understanding how significant this is in society today and how it affects all of us.
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1. How have society's expectations changed over the years?
2. How social pressure impact our physical appearance?
3. How do stereotypes affect us and what their detrimental impacts?
The mood board above shows specifically hidden identity and the kind of work I think of and relate to this sub-category. A common feature is covering and overlaying many parts of the face and they often look surreal in an attempt to create strange and uncomfortable imagery as well as potentially representing distorted views about normality and the problems with expectations. They show depth in their symbolism and messages through the vivid and detailed edits and I'm inspired by the different uses of texture and layering to enhance certain aspects and features of the people within them. I'm excited to experiment with this topic and I will use this as inspiration both when taking my own images and editing them.
To further my research, I was keen to find statistics which would support my claims about society and the pressure to look a certain way. This article from the BBC confirmed my beliefs that expectations and stereotypes are so significant for us today, and also made it clear that this has only grown as an issue in the last decades.