For most of my life, I have been fascinated by costume and altering my appearance. That is why in this project, I used different costumes to express different aspects of my personality, as well as different ways I present myself. I separated these aspects into eight different "selves", each with costumes, props, and settings that represent them. I exaggerated each aspect as well to make them easier to photograph. Some are selves that I create, and some are inherent traits.
My first self is the "cool and mysterious". I expressed quintessential "coolness" with black clothing, sunglasses, and a leather jacket. This is the self that people see when I dress well but don't talk much and carry myself with confidence, the self that people are intimidated by and wish they could be friends with.
My second self is the feminine. Although I do not identify as a woman, I am in touch with my femininity and sometimes decide to present in a more feminine way with makeup or dresses. This character represents my femininity and how I might present myself more often if I identified as a woman.
My third self is the lazy. This is the self that most of my close friends and family see, and is characterized by stress, depression, tiredness, and sloppiness. This is the self that wants to stay in bed all day, only eats junk food, never dresses well, never cleans up after themselves, has panic attacks, is tired all the time, and wastes their life away. I represented this by photographing myself in bed with dirty hair and clothes and a bag of chips.
My fourth self is the happy, spiritual, and kind. This self loves flowers and nature and is a bit of a hippie. They thrive in spring and summer, always recycle, consider others' feelings and believe in karma, and rarely worry as they know things will work out in the end.
My fifth self is the heroic. They represent the hero complex I've always had. I always want to play the role of the knight in shining armor in a story. I portrayed myself in this photo as a cowboy, the knight of the wild west. This character is a born leader who is law abiding, polite, brave, and always helps others.
My sixth self is the academic and professional. This is the least personal and furthest in expression from my true self, yet represents what I feel is a very important aspect of myself: hard work and book smarts. I always put forth great effort in both classes and jobs, and this self represents that. This is the self that is loved by teachers and bosses, gets perfect grades, and has a wealth of knowledge to share but rarely shares personal information.
My seventh self is the healthy and athletic. This represents my health consciousness. I do not always act in health conscious ways (see Lazy Self), but I do think about my health almost constantly and strive to become the healthiest person I can be. This self is that person. They work out regularly, stay active, eat clean and are very strong.
My eighth and final self is the dramatic and creative. This is the self that writes dark poems and sad songs, creates dramatic monologues and dances when they are alone, and isolates themselves to create art. They are inspired by the starving artist and tragic prodigy, but are not as prolific as they wish to be. This is a self that I don't present in my own appearance, but rather in some of my art. I have not made such dramatic art in a long time, and I think that it was partly a phase of being a teenager that motivated me to do so in the first place, but it is nonetheless still a part of me that influences my creative decisions.
This project is different from my midterm in that it utilizes photographs of myself rather than a painting. There are also many different symbols in each of the photos instead of just one throughout the project. Instead of just one image of myself, or rather a focus on one aspect of myself, there are many. I want this project to convey the complexity of the self as well as the ability to express yourself in many different ways simply through appearance. The artist that inspired me most this semester was Cindy Sherman, so it made the most sense to let her influence this final project. The way she creates different identities through costume, setting, and photography resonates with and appeals to me, and it was a natural direction for me to take for the project.
To create the project, I took photos of myself (or had friends take them for me) in each costume after coming up with the different selves I wanted to portray. Then I assembled printouts in a cardboard accordion book. The accordion book is a way to show that the self is many sided but still a single entity.
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