Deciphering_Self

Interior_Motion, Multiple exposure

Exterior_Motion, Multiple exposure

Night_Motion, Single exposure

In this series of self-portraits, I wanted to capture a sense of time and space. With photography, its relatively easy to capture slivers of time (1/25 of a second etc.) but while I was exploring the idea of the multiple exposure, I stumbled onto the act of capturing motion. I looked at the work of Marey and Janieta Eyre for inspiration and was intrigued by combining multiple exposures into one frame to create something previously unseen (kind of like how I paint . . . intuitive and responding to the work as it unfolds, only more controlled because the parameters are set-up for "planned accidents"). I didn't just want a sequence of a motion (like in a skateboard magazine) but something that created an impossible time/space. The motion is a repetitive motion: the same act repeated and rephotographed (as opposed to one sequence of multiple shutter snaps like Marey).
The Interior scene was the baseline but even then there is some fudging of the motion (or emphasis if you will) because the act of juggling the brush caused my hand to blur. So I slowed it down for the sake of the shoot. The idea of performance comes into play here but it kind of hard to avoid when you set up a scene (and consider what to wear, what to include in the shot etc). I also erased some pieces of the various exposures to create and impossible (or at the very least improbable) figure. This simultaneity of space added to the ambiguousness of the scene.
The Exterior scene on the beach took the baseline idea further by adding a "second me" (with hoodie = my evil twin lol). What is created is an impossible scene of me repeatedly throwing stones into the ocean with an added dimension: the two me's begin to interact even though I wasn't physically present in two places at once (I don't have the technology yet :) made obvious by the change of clothing and the inclusion of shadows casts on the beach.
The Night scene took the baseline idea except backwards: it's one shot with an emphasized action (pause to allow more of the light to reflect into the shutter) that's repeated (taking steps). It is more akin to Marey but it differs because it is a performance . . . the false act of walking slow enough and pausing for the camera and not capturing/studying a "real" action.
I think the result of this project is a good segue to video art for next week :D