Faces (2021)
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My project explores the idea of how people react towards things that they are not familiar with. The things that we don't understand seem to pose a threat to us. I have put on display a figure that is close to human but has one defining difference, the eyes. The viewer has to confront these figures.
Portraiture in its basic form is putting someone on display. There is something intriguing about seeing a portrait that almost looks human. There is a tension and a sense of discomfort looking at a face with no eyes. By using color portrait photography where I digitally remove the eyes of the subject, I create a feeling around the need to look at a person in the eyes when confronting them. A connection is created between two people through eye contact and without it there is a sense of distrust.
The reaction we have to these figures says something about humanity. We react negatively towards what is different from us and what we don't understand. There have been many accounts in the past that show how we humans have treated each other differently simply because of our physical features. What if those features are different beyond what we consider to be human?
