What is identity (in photography?)
(Social identity and loss of identity focus)
Identity itself is the fact of being who or what a person or thing is. Identity in photography is more about how a photograph resembles the likeness of what appeared before the lens. So, in the case of a profile picture, family album or mug shot, identity is based on the repetition of sameness that is evidenced by the image produced by the camera.
Identity can be influenced by many things including where you grew up, the people you are around, your heritage etc.
Carole Benitah
is a French Moroccan photographer, who worked for ten years as a fashion designer before turning to photography in 2001, explores memory, family and the passage of time. I find these images very interesting as they are a fresh take on displaying emotions such as grief and the feeling of not belonging while using old family photos to link in heritage. I will definitely be using this as inspiration for my project.
Corrine Day
was a British fashion photographer, documentary photographer, and fashion model. She was a photographer whose influence on the style and perception of photography in the early 1990s and onwards has been immense. Self taught, Day brought a more documentary look to fashion imagery, in which she often included autobiographical elements. She has projects on vitality / pressures of youth.
Diana Markosian
takes an intimate approach to her photography and video storytelling, Her work is represented by Galerie Les Filles du Calvaire in Paris, France and Rose Gallery in Los Angeles, California. She has projects that focus on cultural, geographical and political identity. For example in the photos below she explores unseen parts of foreign culture and the “forgotten” people from older generations who still remember and embrace century old traditions and ideas. For example the first picture was taken on the outskirts of Havana, neighbours gathered in the street waiting for a girl to emerge from her house for her quinceañera. She uses wide shots to show the scale of the gathering, which I think she has done purely to emphasise how important this is in their culture.
