Identity

A series about the impact of social media on the development of "identity".

Social media plays an ever expanding role documenting how individuals develop, and understand, their identity. The message of Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, etc, in this context, is that one's sense of self is properly shaped by looks (identity by assumption and physicality) and friends/activities (identity by experience), as shared in pictures and/or truncated communications. I think that message, delivered by such media platforms, is wrong and damaging as it inhibits and/or arrests the process of self-discovery which is crucial to individual well-being. Indeed, too often, over time, it hard-wires a false, yet all-inclusive "this is me" construct. Portraiture and self-portraiture, however, encourage exploration of the "self” by unwrapping the social construction we call “identity” and contextualizing it as an evolving, dynamic, process. My interest is in documenting identity’s “fingerprints”, i.e. thoughts, feelings, and emotions - both conscious and unconscious. I try to make portraits intimately involved with one's past, present and future and, to do that, I combine images with emotionally driven text voicing universal concerns or actual experiences.

The submitted self-portraits each contain two images, each with accompanying text. The longer narrative in each portrait reveals either an isolated event and resolution, or sets forth a life experience and particular impact. My premise is that the narrative illustrates circumstance(s) registering and imprinting, consciously or unconsciously, aspects of personal identity contributing to development of the “self”. In contrast, the single sentence, and its connected image, are oppositional. Reversing the first image suggests that opposition. The nearby words make my point directly. They not only state the opposition, referencing Facebook and implying its, and other internet platforms vast, identity shaping influence, they also voice distress and rejection of that influence. Summarized, my argument is this: Like infatuation is confused with love, looks, friends, and activities swallowed in bite-sized capsules are identity's "fools gold" - looks like it but isn't.