When I think of the word identity I think "physical", up until recently. One or two things have made me to think of identity as being a multifaceted thing having multiple strands or layers like the spiritual and the mental. Truthfully I only intended to find myself and my identity on a physical level or in a physical way and largely in terms of fashion but now I see it's bigger than that. To me identity has always meant what you look like, what you wear, what you like and enjoy, your personality perhaps and what others know you by...your aesthetics?
The deeper I've thought into this concept I've unravelled words and phrases and ideas like "alter egos", "double lives", "wanting to belong","love","beauty"and I ask myself "what even is beauty?" The plot thickens . I realised that a lot of my questions come back to this same desire to know who I am as a person.
I did a couple of projects this summer and it wasn't till after I finished a shoot with a bunch of cool people I realised that my whole life has been revolving around this same theme. The whole summer (and even before) I have been actively searching for pieces of myself in other people and in other things and in other places around me. Social media certainly doesn't help because now I'm asking myself does society influence us or do we influence society? and can we blame society if we are society?
So with this new found awareness that the word identity is not a singular concept but an umbrella term under which multiple things hide, I'm setting out to talk about and explore each of them one by one so the upcoming posts are going to feature other people I feel seem to be sure(r) of who they are and their identity. I have to say that with some of the people I've interviewed I wasn't as enlightened as I am now and so the questions were geared more towards understanding physical identity but I think this is more reflective of my progress and process in understanding everything.
Stick around for all the madness coming to you live,
From LEMONS :')
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