“People want pictures if YOU,” they say. But I don’t really like things to be focused on me. I want things focused on the MESSAGE. “But you GOTTA give them more of YOU!”… OK… they want more pics of me? Then we are going to do it MY WAY.
Extreme Reality began as a project to make fun of, explore and push back against how obsessed our culture is with staging unrealistic photos of ourselves for the sake of social media likes. It turned into so much more. I found in this project an exploration of self.
(Part Two) #satire – Everything about this series is over the top: the ball gown, the jewelry, the makeup, the filters, the scenarios, the number of photos in the series… everything. And that’s the point.
I set out to make fun of the way people stage fake photos for social media. I took everything to the extreme. Yes, I am cleaning the pool in a ball gown. And as I was creating these obviously unrealistic photos (I would never actually clean the pool in a ball gown), it hit me… I AM actually cleaning the pool in this ball gown. Hmmm. Have I negated the fake-ness? Because to get the shot, I had to do the things. I had to wear the ball gown, the jewelry and the makeup and clean the pool and sweep the deck and goof around with the rusted potbelly stove. And it WAS fun and I WAS smiling for real and … and I don’t know what’s staged and what’s real anymore. But Maxwell, my French Bulldog, had a blast too. He is in most of the photos. Enjoy!
