Alicia_Field

LOOKING-GLASS  This project explores the portrait in the digital age and how young women use photography to construct images of themselves. I've been exploring the role of the digital image and how we can construct our image online through many different types of photographs, but at the same time the value and quality of the image also disintegrates within the mass of online content and over-exposure.  I am fascinated by how we construct and promote our online, public identity and how we try to control that through the photograph. At the same time that identity is lost in the multiple portraits, self-portraits (selfies) and various other imagery established online, it is more of a play with the camera and a construction, mirroring the values we hold society today. 

I have taken the subject of ‘suburbia’ and reflected on my father’s relationship with his family – father, mother and sister – all of whom have now passed away. I photographed his childhood home where his parents lived until they passed away. It remains in the state it was in when my grandfather died, untouched and full of the family’s collective memories. The suburban space is melancholic, from the overgrown garden to the dusty interior; everything sits in the house silent and still. I have overlaid images, combining family photographs and textures from around the house to present a layered quality to the images. The physical items and space is meshed with the life of a suburban family, touching on the value of the home and the memories held within.