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Self Portrait Project: #14

This was the last of the three self portraits I shot that one night in the studio when I invited friends for drinks and a creative studio session. It was an evening dedicated to spontaneity and wacky self expression.

This is a portrait in sleepwear, but glamourised and well matched: The yellow and white lace undie-set come from my trip to Paris last year in July, Etam has the most beautiful lingerie I’ve seen in a while and I picked up this pretty set on sale for almost nothing, happiness! The My Little Pony T-shirt and fox sleep-mask were gifts from those who know me well.
All the items and the playful pose a resemble a kind of naive carefree fun.

When I look at this image now, months after it was shot, it makes me think I was being escapist during a very difficult time. It represents the opposites of everything I was dealing with and was more than likely also brought on by the manic side effects of the medication I was taking.

However, it still makes me smile; it’s a happy-go-lucky kind of moment, captured. Reality and fantasy are a strange and volatile binary pair.

Self-Portrait-Project-014-Leah-Hawker-2014

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Self Portrait Project: #13

This was one of the three self portraits I shot one night in the studio when I invited a few friends for drinks and a creative studio session. The idea was to treat the shoot spontaneously and with an open mind to ideas.

My idea for this image was to create a wreath, which I did by hand, from stolen fynbos picked off Lions Head and connected over wire with florists tape. I used olive oil (I think) on my hands and arms before delicately applying gold leaf to myself with the help of one of the other girls. I bought the giant knickers ages ago at some super random shop at Access Park in Kenilworth for my collection. The pose was exactly what I had had in mind, don’t ask why, it was just one of those instinctive ideas.

I was going to crop the image to have a similar composition to many of the other self portraits in the series but I liked the tiny funny detail of my toes crossed over each other so I left it as a full length portrait.

Self-Portrait-Project-013-Leah-Hawker-2014

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Self Portrait Project: #12

This was the first of three self portraits I shot one night in the studio. I invited a few friends for drinks and a creative studio session. The idea was to treat the shoot spontaneously and with an open mind to ideas.

I had brought a bunch of props with which I wanted to shoot a few more of my own self portraits. In this image I used a selection of multi-coloured measuring tapes and incorporated a kind of awkwardness into my body language. The idea was based on our body-size fears,- I liked the idea of using the blue measuring tape I had as a prop to translate this and went to Fabric City in town and bought a handful more to emphasise the element within the picture.

Self-Portrait-Project-012-Leah-Hawker-2014

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Self Portrait Project: #11

I’ve shot quite a few new self portraits in this project over the last month. This image was impromptu and spontaneous- I often wear my gym clothes to work with the intention that I’ll do something sporty during the day,- this sometimes does happen and sometimes doesn’t. None the less they’re comfy so I don’t really mind. Bryan shot this against our grey studio wall, water-bottle-fake-sweat for effects. I particularly like this lighting style at the moment, I suppose it is naturally very complimentary and highlights form in the best possible way. Proud to say that apart from color grading I didn’t retouch the image at all. Great color, fun and sporty me…

Self Portrait Project 011 by Leah Hawker 2014