Final Project: "GHOST (Men Still Haunt Me)"

    Inspired by my previous photo project and Terri Warpinski, I wanted to create another self-portrait photo series. I pasted small prints into a 7x7" handsewn book to create a more intimate and private experience for the viewer; I want the viewer to feel like that can take as much time as they desire with each image. 

    I took these images in Wriston because I wanted a simple background with minimal distraction. I found a large picture frame that could fit my whole body behind it and took the photos from behind the glass. This glass was to show the mental barrier that had been created between myself and men after working as a stripper during my sophomore year of college. Obviously, there is a very specific demographic of men who are regular customers at a strip club, but since these were pretty much the only men I interacted with on a day-to-day basis, my understanding of who men are became very clouded. Every day, men showed me the most terrible things they're capable of: cheating, assault, and pedophilic tendencies. I became a mere object of viewing pleasure for men; they peered at me through a distorted glass frame of idealization. I was whatever they wanted me to be. 

    In the following months, I was unable to retain any relationship with men, wondering what terrible secrets they were hiding from me. I want to show my past as a sort of ghost of myself, a past that still haunts me, by turning the highlights all the way up, the shadows all the way down, and lowering the contrast as well, creating light gray, undefined, ghostly images of myself. 

    Though this project is titled, "GHOST (Men Still Haunt Me)", I wanted to leave the physical book blank of a title. I am interested in what information the viewer might pull from this book without the presence of words to guide them.