| I model for, photograph, and process my own photographic portraits, a passion which I developed through online photo-sharing in 2006, and which led to solo exhibitions both locally and internationally. My approach to photography is one of simplicity and spontaneity; I was first attracted to the medium by the ease of using a digital camera, improvised lighting, and editing software at home. The comparisons to Cindy Sherman are obvious, but I take my inspiration from a variety of sources, from dreams, childhood, and literature, to works by painters like Caravaggio and Balthus, inverting the traditional male gaze by setting myself up as the subject of her own camera gaze, hence the title of my exhibitions and book, Self-gazing. |  |
Miss Aniela
I model for, photograph, and process my own photographic portraits, a passion which I developed through online photo-sharing in 2006, and which led to solo exhibitions both locally and internationally.
My approach to photography is one of simplicity and spontaneity; I was first attracted to the medium by the ease of using a digital camera, improvised lighting, and editing software at home. The comparisons to Cindy Sherman are obvious, but I take my inspiration from a variety of sources, from dreams, childhood, and literature, to works by painters like Caravaggio and Balthus, inverting the traditional male gaze by setting myself up as the subject of her own camera gaze, hence the title of my exhibitions and book, Self-gazing.
I believe that in art photography, concept is not enough. My aim is to produce arresting visuals that can almost be construed as commercial in appearance, nevertheless produced with a message, and able to deliver a variety of meaningful interpretations. Ultimately, I believe in being genuine about one’s message and striving to be authentic.
I have used my self-portraits to express a variety of emotions and anxieties that I experience in my everyday life. For example, my “multiplicity” (clone) images (The escape, Their evening banter) show the self (the photographer) twice, three times, even up to six times, in the same frame. The effect is achieved digitally, and aims to present the conflicting parts within human nature, within one human being, and how they achieve synchronicity with each other. The “selves” are shown working together, escaping together, reclining together, hiding, looking, dining. The figures are often in a state of imbalance, of tension, whilst achieving visual harmony within each piece. The motive to create these images came from the desire to conduct a composite that would be entirely of “oneself”—a group shot where no power from “looker” to “looked-at” is compromised.
Tricks (The smothering, The adjustment, Washed up) is a series that explores the symptoms of anxiety, and the overall fear and disturbance caused by the whole sensation. The disorder led to the psychological complexity of the mind of someone likely to suffer from it. It is more than a low ebb of feelings, but the roller coaster of going from emotional peaks to troughs on a daily basis. The intention was to introduce a tone of reclamation and celebration through the lively interpretation of what can be, in reality, depressing and disconcerting.
