Week 6 - Andy Warhol Inspired Portrait

"They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself" - Andy Warhol

"[T]he fundamental idea that appearance and character are linked has remained influential into contemporary times...A recent example of physiognomy made popular again has been produced by a California-based psychologist, Paul Ekman. He has developed an analytic framework for reading the human face that he calls FACS (the Facial Action Coding System)...a catalogue of more than three thousand different faces. Ekman maintains that these voluntary and involuntary expressions are universal and can be reliably read irrespective of the cultural setting." - Finkelstein p.123

"[Publicity] proposes to each of us that we transform ourselves, our lives, by buying something more." - Berger p.131

This series is mainly based on the idea that changing facial expressions can change the way one is identified, either by themselves or others. This may be an unreliable way to identify a person's whole self since a facial expression is never stuck one way, but the way someone facially reacts to certain situations can identify certain aspects of their personality. Andy Warhol would sometimes photograph a subject multiple times, only changing each image by having the subject change their facial expression. This provides an example for the format of my pictures. They are shot in the same location around the same time. To differ between each image, I focused each one on a different expression(from left to right on each row: neutral, disgusted, neutral smile, afraid, confused, sad, happy, exasperated, and surprised). Andy Warhol also focused much of his work on advertising, which, as Berger expresses, includes the notion of change in order to persuade people that they can change themselves by buying a product. This is commonly done through the facial expressions of actors in commercials, for example expressing sadness before and happiness after using a product. As Warhol states, however, one has to change things themselves. This evokes the concept of changing yourself through your actions, including how you react to situations and express your emotions. As someone who struggles with emotional issues such as anxiety and depression, this concept is extremely interesting to me. I have difficulty changing my emotions themselves yet I know it is possible and thus it is an important concept to learn. This is why I focused on the theme of change and facial expressions for my piece.