anti-gaze (shooting blind)

(2011-02-14)

literally, i had my eyes closed when i took these pics. partly because i think the gaze is what usually give me away when i shoot pics of strangers. also i've this underlying fear of blindness, after my mom was diagnosed with non-age-related macular degeneration (which according to wiki - however accurate that is - means my lifetime risk of developing same is 50% higher than norm), and especially discovering that i had an older brother who was blind at birth. i think this is partly why i'm compelled to produce, to amass a body of work.

cell phone

(2011-01-28)

eye contact

(2009-11-18)

we were standing against opposite subway doors, just to give context of subject/object distance for some of these sequences

Gaze

(2009-11-05; 2010-11-17; 2011-02-03)

Originally, these photographs were explorations with sequence/time-event lapse. Somewhere along the way, I became interested in the power of "the gaze" (Lacan & Foucault). Soon, performance elements are incorporated into the investigation. Often the interactive element becomes a challenge between me and the subject. Do men and women react differently to a photographer, especially when they are strangers to each other? When the gaze is without permission? Whether the perceived sexual orientation of the subject/object affects the interaction?

A Year in Window

I don't have very many clear memories from childhood, but I do remember walking by a garment shop on Prince Edward Road every day going home from school. It was not a big shop, but there were many mannequins in the windows and usually at least one of them would be in pieces, waiting for its new clothes. I think that's the root of my fascination with mannequins (they're like giant - then bigger than life-size - dolls).

For a year (08/09-08/10), I walked by the Golden Closet (a vintage clothing shop, now defunct) almost everyday for my commute. I took photographs with my phone every time there's a change in the windows. It started as a documentation of time passing, but what I soon found more interesting were the illusions in each tableaux...

for better quality: http://vimeo.com/atyl/a-year-in-window

Dibs!!

This is the 2nd year my mom's been living in the States, and her first blizzard. She's very amused by the time-honored 'dibs' system of reserving shoveled street parking. So we borrowed my landlord's shovel and lawn chair and bucket and for the first time ever, I shoveled out my car this morning... We're calling it performance art.

Time

It's really amazing how easily it slips through one's fingers...

(I've been shooting the sequences this last year, just haven't posted them...yet!)