Artist Inspiration: Tomoko Sawada

Tomoko Sawada is a Japanese artist that I found from my art history class, history of contemporary photography. I really liked her work. I felt like it was similar to Nikki S. Lee's that I had mentioned before. She dresses up in costume to conceal her identity in order to show the ability of identity to change. One of her most known works, Teenage Girls, she dresses herself up and photographs herself as multiple girls. 








It's amazing because in the photos, it is very hard to tell that it is her throughout the photo. She also does many group shots (school photos), where she depicts herself as a class full of students, including the teacher.

Many Facets

I am going to continue to look to her work to help me with my own work. I enjoy what she is doing because I feel like she executes her idea well. It makes the experience of looking at her work more enjoyable. Upon realizing that each figure is the same person, a certain fun is felt because it is just then that we realize we've been tricked.

Take a look for yourself...we've been tricked! 

Introspection
For my last photo project, I decided to work with something that I had not done yet...self-portraits. For this series, I chose to explore the topic of introspection, which is the study of one's own emotions, thought processes etc. Throughout the series, I wanted to maintain a natural feel. I didn't want the photos to feel posed. Through my facial expressions and body language, I projected my inner thoughts and feelings, conveying a sense of happiness mixed with a small amount of dissatisfaction. I found it pretty useful because I want to do self-portraits for thesis. Doing this project, gave me the opportunity to practice with focus, while remaining my own subject. Can I say... I feel a little accomplished doing this project because I've never been the subject of my own photography...or anyone else's for that matter. I was a little embarrassed to show the project at first because it felt very personal and I felt like I was inviting my class into my inner thoughts but after showing the first few photos, I felt so much better. It made me feel better about myself and more comfortable with myself. Who knows...maybe there will be some nudes in the near future? hahaha...not likely :) 

Inspiration

I've been doing a bit of thinking about my thesis and I'm starting to get some great ideas. The topic I want to explore is that of identity. I find it very interesting and it is still an aspect of my main focus, psychology. An artist that I've been admiring is Nikki S. Lee, a Korean-born photographer. When working with identity, she created a series of projects in which she immersed herself in different cultural groups such as Punks, Exotic Dancers, Hispanics, etc. In each project, she dressed up to play the part and became friends with people belonging to that cultural group. I admire her conceptual ideas because she took the work further by playing the role of individuals of the group. In the majority of her projects, she is almost unrecognizable. 

Nikki S. Lee

Nikki S. Lee

The Hip Hop Project

Nikki S. Lee 

The Hispanic Project

Nikki S. Lee

The Senior Project 

Nikki S. Lee

The Yuppie Project

I look forward to keep on exploring Nikki S. Lee's work and hope that it will further inspire me to work further toward my thesis idea.