This project seeks to understand the impact of place of origin on social identity formation. In this ongoing project, I'm photographing raw emotions, behaviors, and psychological states that come from the environments we're born into. By turning these ideas into still performances, my goal is to show both the emotional ties a person has with their place of origin as well as the effects it leaves on their social identity. These images are representative of the first chapter of the book that this project will inevitably become. Chapter 1: Shaped By The Forest explores my own place of origin where I was raised in a secluded forest far from a traditional suburban upbringing. I feel that in order to fully understand another's perspective, I first must explore my own through the use of the self portrait. Feelings of safety within your environment and love of your roots, compared to attitudes of longing for community and entrenchment in that environment, are a few examples that are depicted in this chapter. My goal with the subsequent chapters is to explore the perspective of other's in different environments to understand their origins and the imprint that those places leave inside them. Through this work l encourage my audience to consider the the subtle yet powerful ways that our environments shape who we are who we become and the groups that we choose to
affiliate ourselves with.
affiliate ourselves with.
