Photo 2: Fabricating Reality
Here is my third project from my Photo 2 class. This project was definitely my favorite out of all of them, and I'm excited to explore more with Photoshop.
This series was created with the sole purpose of making the audience as uncomfortable as possible. It makes the viewer not only see the hands in front of them, but also at the same time—hopefully—feel the hands and fingers moving about.
This series is connected through the hands in each photo being placed in unique and uncomfortable positions. The hands not only create an obvious connection, but together they also create a body within themselves.
This project was not really influenced by a time period or another artist, but my own artwork. I usually try to make my images either have a deep meaning to emotionally connect the viewer, or to make them as confused and uncomfortable as possible. This idea came from a discussion I had with a friend a few years back. It was over the pros and cons to having smaller hands on the tips of all our fingers. The conclusion was although it would be interesting and somewhat humorous—it was incredibly impractical—simply because the small hands and fingers would be breaking constantly and would cause everyone a lot of unnecessary pain. This is probably not the strongest reason to not have tiny, extra hands, but for us it was the only reason we cared enough about to give up our hypothetical, mini hands.
Although the main reason for this piece is to make the viewer uncomfortable, it also has another purpose. The other purpose is to make the viewer thinking about their own personal characteristics that help define them as a person. It is supposed to show them that in many cases the characteristics can be both in and out of their own hands—"control”. Also, that occasionally we, as people, make decisions and afterwards it can be confusing as to why we made such a decision. In those cases it is sometimes as if another force within us is making the choices for us—regardless of whether they are good or bad.
