continuing with the theme of “finally posting work from last semester” i give you my first assignment from body in photo taught by Regina DeLuise.
the class was pretty self-explanatory, learning how to use the figure in our images. our first assignment was to choose a myth and create images inspired by that myth. i chose the greek myth of sisyphus which tells the story of a greedy and self-obsessed king who is punished by the gods to roll a stone up a hill, only for it to roll back down, for the rest of eternity.
i interpreted this myth as a person dealing with a task that can never be accomplished and tried to relate it to my own life. i was a dancer for about ten years before i had to give it up for other interests. i chose to depict myself attempting dance poses that i used to be able to do with ease.
while the final images may look graceful, the extended exposure informs the viewer that i struggled to hold the pose. this is a sisyphean task for me because i will never be able to get my body back to the way it was when i danced.
Rachel Verhaaren is a photographer originally from Long Island, New York. She now resides in Baltimore where she attends the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her recent work analyzes human and mechanical optical perception.