AVEN

As a mainly graphite artist, photography is a bit outside of my comfort zone, and I pushed myself even further by choosing to make my subject myself. It was difficult for me to photograph myself, since I so often feel less than confident about my features, but this really helped to boost my confidence, especially because as I edited the photos, I was staring at my face for extended periods of time. I decided that the aspects of my identity that I would be focusing on would be my sexuality and in a way, my femininity. I very rarely wear make-up, but felt that it would be perfect for communicating my sexuality through the colors of my flag, with the added bonus of symbolizing me embracing my femininity. I chose to make my backgrounds simple, editing them monochrome with a simple geometric shape behind my head in each so that the space didn’t appear too empty. In each photo, I used one of the four colors of the flag, and planned out the look beforehand, though I had to make some compromises due to time and limitations of the environment I had to work with. Each look is meant to look unique, a play on the idea of the spectrum of sexuality as well as a way for each photo to be individual.