"Prom Night"

It took me a while to think and understand the concept of gender in our terms used in artwork, and how it might apply to me and my own work. I've realized that I tend to exhibit the more feminine aspects of art. My photos are not strong or imposing upon the viewer, rather they are beautiful, inviting or vulnerable. It is rare for my photos to have masculine concepts or aspects applied to them. I photograph my boyfriend all the time, and those photos are pretty much all feminine and fairly vulnerable. With this photo, his face shows vulnerability and desperation. The word "failure" is not a masculine quality or word. It is not about strength, it is about the lack of strength. He is trying to rub it out, but he is not strong enough.

In this photo my model is welcoming the viewer to her own issues and insecurities. The viewer does not even have these darker aspects forced upon them. My photo invites them to dig deeper, to look closely and read the sign that the model is holding. The photo has the model inviting the viewer into her own mental space and place, rather than exhibiting a protruding and intrusive object. Despite the theme of insecurity within this photo, beauty was still important to me while shooting it, which is a very feminine quality. Overall, I think that I am artistically rather feminine. Power, strength, and masculinity have not been things that I shoot or depict.

Sentence: I am exploring the effects of invisible illnesses.