Her Nature
Her Nature is an installation composed of work from the woods of Maine where I spent my summer working with two young women who were preparing to go away to college. With them I discussed identity and representation of femininity in our culture; particularly that of their high school experience where they began their process of growing out of girlhood. Through these conversations a series of video and photographic portraits were born that open up their representations of self and the controlled gestures I imposed upon them.
The portraits started as a highly posed and self-conscious presence, once staging are moments of self-directed performance where they exist for the camera on their own terms. This is not just their stern gaze out of a performed character, but those moments with which they break through the surface with their own playful gestures or a simple touch.
The scenes were installed on a stage constructed in a studio on the edge of the forest that used a window in the space as an additional live-channel to the video channels dedicated to the pose and play.
Excerpt from Her Nature (Tumble):