SMOTHER is a set of my design, created with the intention of showing deep and intrinsic feelings that serve as social barriers which we cannot normally express and therefore deal with solitarily. These issues often concern a wide range of other issues which I feel are expressed in the above images, such as sex and gender issues and issues of space and comfort that are often inevitable in the way we develop our relationships with one another. Often times we cannot express how we feel in these moments because they can be very complex and perhaps we do not even understand them ourselves, as a result they are often held onto, for any given amount of time, to be considered when we are in private or when distance is created within that relationship. The bag that is over the young woman's head throughout these photos represents the emotional and social barriers we feel in social dynamics that form subtly, while the emphasis on hands and their placements serve as a physical representative of the sub-conscious; what we feel beneath the veil.
I hope these intentions are conveyed well in my photography.
For reference, the individuals displayed in these photos gave me their permission to use these photographs for this class, which includes this portfolio. They are all my dear friends and they do not represent my photography to any capacity beyond having modeled in these photos.