Participation as observation: how I create myself from others

Abstract

My work consists of images of the type of people I have had the most experience with: 20-something year old, white, middle-class men. Almost all of the images are of my closest friends, or of other young men I am around because of my proximity to the activities of college men. I have put their interests and actions in the context of family and tradition; thus, oval mats and hanging frames. The frames are made of different materials ' wood, plastic, metal ' and resemble the hodgepodge nature of frames found in most family homes. The use of frames and mats indicates my relationship to the men ' loving and familial ' while also pointing to the specific culture formed by a family. They each come bearing their own culture of traditions as all participate in a new one, one formed by their everyday interactions with their peers. Frames provide a familiar and dated method of presentation of the portrait, but the formality of a posed sitter is broken by intimate and specific views of young men's actions. By placing him in the home, I am drawing attention to a general familiarity with the modern young man and putting his seemingly innocuous actions up for consideration.