This project made me a little uneasy: a) I’ve progressively lost my creativity since I was a kid and b) this required taking photos of myself. Now for me, I didn’t feel the need to use props and there’s no “model-like” posing. I wanted to focus on encompassing what I defined as a “selfie,” which these days refer to the face. Now, had I had photoshop on my laptop, this may have turned out a bit different (as in a lot better…at least that’s what I’d like to think), but seeing that I only had my cell phone and an undergraduate library printer, I had to settle for a little less.

She’s a bit wonky and messy, and I definitely wouldn’t categorize this as my best work, but that’s the point. I wanted to make myself uncomfortable. I wanted to create something that was imperfect and didn’t all fit together like puzzle pieces. Something that reflects what all of us feel at times. I think we allow society, especially social media, to dictate our self worth. We put forth all these standards of beauty that at times cloud our judgment and make us feel inferior to our peers. As embarrassing as it is to admit, when I was taking these selfies, I would try and pout my lips and create the illusion that my nose was smaller. It’s was always something that I had subconsciously done, but looking at my expression in many of the photos I had taken, I began to notice the pattern. I realised my hesitancy to be a little silly. I didn’t want to take unflattering pictures, succumbing to the fear of what others would think about me. In some ways, there was a sense of freedom while doing this project. I wanted to distort myself and make it weird. As someone who doesn’t have a lot of self-confidence, it was, initially, a little difficult to post this. But, if I could take away anything from this, it’s that life is too short to take yourself too seriously. Seeing myself in this fashion is strange, to say in the least, but it’s refreshing. I’m not going to always be “put-together” and that’s okay.