Her Nature
Her Nature is an installation composed of work captured in the woods of Maine one 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):