PROFILEFACE

Created in alignment with Camera/whore, an open form/forum activated by the viewers/viewed blurring the boundaries between artist/audience, which took place in Paul Wong Project's ON MAIN in VIVO Media Arts and was curated by Erica Lapadat-Janzen and Matt Troy. For one evening, twelve artists were asked to individually create an interactive performative space, inviting viewers to become co-creating participants.

I set up a corner pop-up photo studio using a studio strobe and digital camera, set on a tripod with a large mirror behind enabling the participant to see themselves from where they stood. I first captured a straight studio portrait of the viewer/participant (image left), after which I gave the viewer/participant an extended shutter release and asked them to use the mirror as an aid in creating a portrait of themselves they might use for online social media profiles, and to click the release when they felt well represented (image right). After releasing the shutter, viewer/participant’s were invited to travel from being in front of the camera to behind in order to view their potential Profileface. Each viewer/participant’s active collaboration ended when they felt they’d captured an image they would sincerely use on social media.