Simon Olmetti

"It's not you, it's me"

 

All above images are copyright of Simon Olmetti, taken from his series "It's Not You It's Me".

 http://www.simonolmetti.com/itsme

“The real self cannot be revealed through portraiture but only projected through performance. It cannot be represented in a single photograph but only revealed through a series of images, each showing a fragment of it, a hint, a faded resemblance of some aspect of the personality.” Simon Olmetti 

Although these portraits are striking and quite naturally beautiful, they don't necessarily interest me in terms of the work I am producing and the ideas I wish to challenge/portray. They do however, follow similar conventions to those taken by Dijkstra in terms of producing a series of images that, when placed together, accentuate the difference in identity between different people both culturally and physically. However, what I am most interested in when studying this work by Olmetti is what he says about this particular series (see above quote taken from website referenced). This quote, for me pin points exactly what I have been trying to show as the term has progressed; "The real self cannot be revealed through portraiture". Through various research and influences I have determined this term that one's identity cannot be fixed in one photograph and read by the viewer to be exactly that- a fixed identity. It is instead fragmented, we are different depending on the people we are with or the situation we are in. As seen with Dijkstra's portraits we are also culturally subjected to particular stereotypes and read images in the way in which the society we live in has taught us to read them. Therefore identity can never be fixed but is instead fluid, constantly changing as we grow older and experience more. Only when we can look back on our lives can we truly understand ourselves. This is why have focused specifically on memory and the relationship between time and aging in order to convey different aspects of my Grandparents' identities but more importantly to try and understand them, to place them within everyday life and see them as more than just a "Nana" but as a person who has experienced life and all the challenges that come with it in order to learn more about myself. It is a recurring circle of time and memory that has gotten me to this stage and this is something I would like to put a heavy emphasis on in my final prints as it is something that every human being has to experience.