Continuing my research into photographers that explore identity brought me to Giuseppe Mastromatteo. In his series Indepensense 2009 he explored the notion of identity by using manipulation to create illusion type images. He takes nudes of his subjects and creates new elements within the images that portray the idea that there are parts of their identity they wish to replace, hide behind, or destroy.
His creations of people with masks of their own faces is representative of the idea that no matter how open we are, we still have something we want to hide behind. Everyone might think you’re being 100% honest about who you are, but everyone has secrets and things that they wish to keep private about their lives. What I like about these images is the slightly off colour of each of the masks compared to their actual skin tone. It’s just enough to make you realise there’s a difference between their real selves and their masks, but it’s not too obvious. I interpreted this as similar to real life. Sometimes you have to look a lot closer to recognise when someone isn’t being true to themselves. It also makes their faces look incredibly fake and doll like, which is creepy in itself, but it just adds to the lack of authenticity that he is presenting through their fake identities.
His second set of images above, portraying people tearing up paper versions of their own faces, feels to me like he’s toying with the idea of not liking your identity. It’s obvious that they’re all holding replicas of their own image, but when they are torn apart, it’s as if they’re actually tearing into their true selves. I suppose this could be attributed to real life as well, with the idea that destroying some people’s outer identity also tears away at their inner selves. Some people might feel that all they have is a facade to keep things going, especially when things get hard, and if this gets questioned or something happens to test that facade, then it might end up damaging the person underneath. It could also represent that people’s identities are as flimsy as a piece of paper, and that we are all destructible and interchangeable at any time, so we shouldn’t feel trapped in this social construct of ‘identity.’
This is going to be a really good series to use as inspiration for my project, since I can use the literal element of destroying images of yourself to destroy your identity, and also use the metaphorical meaning of hiding behind something or disliking the way you are. I like the aesthetic of his images, but I want mine to be less forced and more like I’m observing the person within a natural environment that would bring about their selected personality. I will probably shoot in public as opposed to in a studio in an attempt to create this idea, since in public is when people mostly tend to alter their identities to fit whatever ideals they think society holds for them.
Amy Elizabeth Photography 