I started shooting PolaroidWomen in October 2014, I still had one pack left of original Polaroid film hanging-out in the depths of our fridge which I’d bought in 2009 (expired 2007) and went and emptied a big portion of my bank account on another stack of Impossible film (the miraculous company that have managed to re-produce instant film for Polaroid after Polaroid stopped manufacturing film in 2008).
I picked up my snap-shot Polaroid camera at Orms in 2006 I think and had only ever passed about 8-9 packs of film through it by 2013. I planned to use the project for OpenStudios 2014, one of the first few creative and art based projects I’ve re-involved with for the last 6 years (!).
The project resulted in a selected series of 35 framed instant images for the exhibition,- the images take a voyeuristic peek into a fantasy world of women in dreamy, nondescript natural spaces…..tiny portholes to a place where the ethereal is momentarily a reality.
Below are some snaps from the OpenStudios event:
Some of the images from the series below:
I aimed to approach the image taking process differently to my norm. Where I usually control and stage my work quite particularly, here I asked my models to be natural, carefree, awkward, real and just playful. I guided some more than others, depending on the location and woman I was working with.
I shot in about six different locations for the series, ranging from swimming pools in Franschoek, orchids, rivers, shooting ranges, forests and beaches,- all with a sort of anonymous composition which leaves the environment and the women to be anyone, anywhere, a slice of time, a dream.
I plan to continue the series into 2015. For now the remaining framed pieces left over after the Open Studios show are hanging at Exposure Gallery in the Old Biscuit Mill, Woodstock.
I’m so constantly aware of this pursuit for perfection in women around me. It appears in many different ways, be it eating disorders, aggressive beauty treatments, make-overs, insecurities, etc. It is the opposite of self-acceptance I think it is created by our overexposure to advertising with its polished images of what is so-called-perfect mixed also with the strange importance we give to fame and celebrity. The byproduct of this pre-occupation is uncertainty about ones own self-image and an obsession with it. Of course also living in a social media “era” has made it even more vivid as we’re bombarded with images that have all been curated to depict how we see ourselves and others.
A staged “selfie” I shot of Yolandi during our cover shoot, made to look authentically safe taken.
The “selfie”, self-photo phenomenon, is a prime example of our self-identifying-obsession. The word itself, which I recently read was chosen as “Word of the Year for the Oxford English Dictionary”, just goes to show the extent of our new self-depicting obsession. The selfie trend tells us so much about how we selectively choose to portray ourselves to others based on what we assume is beautiful, acceptable, cool. It also picks up on the demand for authenticity in the subject via the amateur camera holder as apposed to the overly perfected images we are saturated with.
It was such a relevant theme to pick up on for one of the cover shoots I was commissioned for earlier last year for magazine brand Playboy South Africa. The cover model, Yolandi Malherbe, is a past playmate and is very exposed to this issue through the social media she participates in, I liked the idea of playing with the irony of her self-mania on “her” cover, the look and concept of which were in my hands.
I photographed the Playboy South Africa April 2013 cover with Yolandi Malherbe as its cover “celebrity”, her nudity covered with Polaroid selfies.
I’ve been working with nudes, both commercially and in my own fine art based projects, since I started as a photographer. Many of the models I’ve worked with in the nude/swimwear etc genre now have their own self created Facebook “fan” pages. Its such a strange platform and in most ways is very narcissistic, inviting an over-inflated concept of “self”.
A selection of the 100 polaroids I shot of Yolandi Malherbe on her cover shoot for Playboy SA.
The models fill their pages with images of themselves; some professionally taken and the rest are often sexy selfies. The majority of the feedback and support they receive comes from anonymous followers (predominantly men from anywhere, often conservative countries) who enjoy the free “kick” thrown into their daily newsfeeds. I suppose that even though its 95% hot air it feeds a feeling of self-worth and therefore the behaviour is flourishing.
I styled my subject to reflect the self-within-the-self-within-the-self as a paradox, the twisted version we accept and create currently in a strange cycle between beauty and self identity.
An image from Yolandi’s pictorial where she poses taking her own selfies with a vintage Polaroid camera.
In my series of images with Yolandi, apart from depicting her beautifully and sexily as the brand expects, I played with this notion of the Selfie as a kind of reversed insecurity, a tool we have started to use to gain a kind of attention. The images thus try to depict the model in layers: she is (1) the subject of the images and article, (2) she is photographed by me, (3) photographing herself, (4) showing you herself within the image again and (5) incorporate photos of herself within polaroids of herself which coyly draw attention to (6) the object of the images which is her own nudity/sexuality.
(Note: “The Housewives” was a term I fondly coined in 2006 after I started getting shoot requests from private, individual women who became my clients. Many of the women who contacted me were married and in their mid 30’s and were doing the shoots as gifts to their husbands. The folder in my archives is still called this and so I’ve stuck to it, in part just for the irony: most of these women are not “housewives” at all, but strong independent and forward thinking women who I have had the honour of documenting.
All are private commissions and the demographic has changed substantially over the years. Some I’m still in contact with, others I’ve totally lost contact with, some have become friends, some may wish not to have their real names used, others don’t mind, some may have their faces obscured for privacy reasons, others have generously shared their experiences of being photographed.)
I photographed gorgeous Nicky in her sister-in-laws spare bedroom one afternoon in early 2006.
The shoot was planned as her one year anniversary gift to her husband. Traditionally each year of marriage has a different symbol item or medium associated to it (Like gold, or wood, or tin etc) and the first is paper, so romantic!
The images were all shot Polaroid and put into an album for him after the shoot. I only have the cropped versions of the images which is what Ive added here. It was so lovely to shoot an entire project on Polaroid!
