proposal for project 3

For this project I want to use the “picture within a picture” theme. I was immediately inspired by Kenneth Josephson’s use of photos within his photos to illustrate illusions. I think that this method is very interesting because the main focus of the photo is another photo and this leads me to immediately think of how significant the pieces of paper, which the photograph revolves around, really are. In Sontag we read a lot about how photography can be a document, or an extension of self, or a way of proving something—like evidence. I feel like Josephson’s method is playing off of this idea in a satirical way because these photos have no such purpose and, if anything, are put together in a way that is not realistic. For instance, the image of the water with another image of a boat on top of it; both photographs have been altered drastically by being compiled together and now neither reveal truth nor “scientific representation.” I like this idea for its comedy, but also because it doesn’t do what so many people rely on photography to do: to verify their every facet of their existence while still knowing they can edit out what they would rather forget. I would like to incorporate Josephson’s idea into my project but elaborate on it. I want to use medium format, black and white film, and I want to do portraits—shocking, I know. I would like to do various angles and positions of the body, but the shots will be generally head and shoulder portraits (because that’s also as close as I can get with the 88mm lens). I want to take photos and drawings and impose them over the subject so as to take away the raw information from the image: I hope that this will also show how the same piece of paper that my photo will turn into, can be used to deny an audience from the knowledge they crave when viewing images, as opposed to satiating it.

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