The team at @Unsplash reached out to me to commission a body of work around the theme of identity. Identity is such a broad, subjective concept that I ultimately used several different technical approaches to create the portraits.
My first idea was to photograph a subject from several different angles, then import the images to my computer and use a projector to display the images back onto them. My intent was to create cubist-inspired images that showed several angles of the subject’s face at the same time.
My second idea was to shoot through a diffusion panel that was salvaged from a deconstructed Mac monitor. The panel allows me to simultaneously see the front and side of my subject’s face, creating images similar to the cubist approach.
For my third idea I used mirrors in a couple different ways. The first was to use a cracked mirror to create a double image of the subject. In one of the sessions I shot with a couple, and I played around with having them take turns holding the mirror to reflect each other. I also tried having one of them hold a prism in front of the other person’s face, capturing both of their reflections in the cube.
Finally, I played around with print manipulation. I created a set of images, printed them out, and then had the subjects interact with them, such as crumpling them up or tearing them.
I’d like to thank my amazing subjects (@parkerxlouis, @vivvyen, @clara____cecile, and @4evvrr) for helping bring my ideas to fruition. I’d also like to thank Unsplash for the amazing freedom and support to create my art.
