Attribute in der Porträt- fotografie
In my theoretical work, I explored the question of how portrait photography constructs identities, how plastic they are and who has control over the images through the medium and attributes. For this, I made use of images from Central Asia as examples. My focus was on staged photographs that were taken in a studio. The investigation concentrated on the image of the other, which was shaped by the photographers themselves. The emphasis was on how exactly the exotic image became a trap for Central Asians and why it is still produced today.
POV: my daily session
The installation, which includes a video work, unites a complex dialogue of autobiographical elements and an examination that is critical of colonialism in my homeland, Uzbekistan. How fake must one’s life be in order to conform to societal norms? This is shown in the staged video, in which questions are answered in a Q&A format during the reenactment of my own make-up before my wedding. Embedded in objects from my home country and mixed with sayings from the internet, a perspective is provided on a life in a hybrid between several worlds: my cultural home and adopted countries, human existence between fake and actual life, and body politics between pressure and freedom.
