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My current work “Couples” attempts to address a series of questions about self-representation, the private versus public experience, and the ephemeral nature of control in a series of large-scale photographic autoportraits. In my experience shooting fashion and other commercial photography, I became fascinated by roles played both by myself as the photographer/director and that of the model/subject. It seemed effortless to slip into these familiar roles, to assume the lead position to realize a conceptual or aesthetic vision, therefore achieving images that were in large part a reflection of what I was thinking or feeling at the time. |
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Justin William Lin
My current work “Couples” attempts to address a series of questions about self-representation, the private versus public experience, and the ephemeral nature of control in a series of large-scale photographic autoportraits.
In my experience shooting fashion and other commercial photography, I became fascinated by roles played both by myself as the photographer/director and that of the model/subject. It seemed effortless to slip into these familiar roles, to assume the lead position to realize a conceptual or aesthetic vision, therefore achieving images that were in large part a reflection of what I was thinking or feeling at the time. Having and delegating control initially seemed a critical function of the process, but I soon began to try introducing variables into the familiar photographer-subject relationship, which would often radically alter results.
One such variable, explored in an earlier series “While You Weren’t Looking,” employed the use of a remote cable release and an unattended camera. Subjects were given control of a fixed camera in an empty studio, and were left alone to photograph themselves nude without the influence of a third party. The series, like its successor “Couples,: would become a unique manifestation of the Observer Effect, where the path of the observed is inherently altered by the presence of an observer. In both “WYWL” and “Couples,” the direct observer is not live, willful and issuing directives, but inanimate and controlled by the subject.
The evolution of these projects continued along a somewhat scientific process, introducing new variables to the existing setup. Whereas the earlier series involved single persons in a neutral space, “Couples” explores the area between two persons involved in a committed relationship, in their own home’s most intimate space. The camera, still controlled by the subjects, would be fixed above the bed allowing a top-down perspective in which the bed becomes the canvas, filling the entire frame. Choice and chance become more influential factors: only one participant can handle the remote at a time and neither is not aware of the bodies’ composition in the camera’s image, but they are able to capture moments at their discretion.
This kind of partial choice is central to my autoportraiture studies; I believe the process strips away a filtering layer from the images and creates an empathy between viewer and subject, even as the viewer gazes upon a highly intimate scenario. There is a tacit understanding that rather than being “captured,” the participants are revealing and exposing themselves while remaining entirely in control.
