Maria Kapajeva

Along the course of this project leading up to Assignment 3, I took a closer look at the work of Maria Kapajeva. In her work she operates her self portraiture by using the image of other people in the photograph that depict how she envisions herself. They are a direct representation of her and who she is but they are not her, they are someone else.

It is very interested to look at self portraiture in this way and I have not done so previously. In researching this medium an idea has sparked regarding doing a shoot on artefacts I have picked up over the years that sort of define me or memorable periods of my life.

The series of work I looked at is called A portrait of an Artist, where Kapajeva uses portraits of artists in their creative environment and uses these asa direct analogy to who she is as an artist. The work also has a feminist approach, with some of the reason behind the series is the often undervalued place of women within most if not all forms of the artistic medium. From what I can see Kapajeva is challenging not only the notion of who she is and what she stands for but also attempting to raise awareness of the female artist within society and associated industry.

Below are images for artistic reference only.

The artist here is depicted in her working environment which adds depth to the ethic behind the image. A simple composition and subtle lighting draw the subject to the front of the frame and isolate her appearance in from of the viewer. The use depth of field sorts to further emphasise this.

References

Reference – (ONLINE) – Maria Kapajeva – http://www.mariakapajeva.com/a-portrait-of-the-artist-as-a-young-woman/ (last accessed 25/6/20)