From the three key concepts that emerged during my Projection 1 work—Portrait, Outline, and System—I decided that the best approach would be to pick one and continue iterating. Since my enquiry still felt quite broad, I took some time to research and get a clearer idea of what I wanted to do.
During Feedback Cindy Sherman’s work came up, which gave me a new perspective on perception and made me think about stereotypes—something she parodies in her work and which are a big part of consumer culture. She is best known for using self-portraiture to explore themes of identity, gender, and societal roles, often transforming herself into various characters to critique how women are portrayed in media and culture. I think it’s interesting how she uses herself to criticize these portrayals—through makeup, distortion, and collage.
I also came across the work of Max Siedentopf, a visual artist who created a series parodying passport photos. He challenges the strict standards of official portraits by creating double-sided faces—on the surface, a strict, emotionless image, and below it, funny and surreal scenes that reveal another side of the subject. What I like about his approach is the humor and the idea of showing two moments at once—two constructed images coexisting in one frame.