Following last weeks Group Crit it was suggested that I take photographs of me wearing the collar – not just in a dramatic or straight photographic sense; but to make the collar a hum-drum item. Something you have to wear and live with every day. This is pretty much the point of the collar – it’s something you have to live with, to put up with and to find ways to overcome. BUT I’m not at all comfortable with the pictures being of me in this setting. Probably because I look too much like ME! I prefer the other varieties (that follow) because they have more of a ‘mask’ in the make-up and the way the images are taken are clearly staged – rather than me and my life.
Anyway, I’ve tried to make these a ‘reportage’-type ‘day-in-the-life’ images. Showing that the collar is the same as an item of clothing or make up. Something you put on to be public facing – in order to conform to what is expected of you in society – every day.
Some of them are far too contrite and contrived. They make me feel uncomfortable – I can’t tell if that’s because they are pictures of me that I don’t like (and can’t see beyond that) or because they make everyone uncomfortable. See what you think…
Amelia Wilson Art 