When You Are the Camera and the Camera is You: The Act of Dressing up in Photography

The performative act of "dressing up" is deeply embedded in the history of photography. The making, acting and constructing of the photograph blurs the line between representation and performance. This presentation of work and research will explore and critique the performative nature of the photographic medium. The act of "dressing up," both in terms of subject and concept, emerges as a critical gesture within this framework- an aesthetic choice that signals the staging and self-conscious construction of identity. In this context, photographs become meta-statements on the act of looking, reflecting on the tension between the creator's awareness of being observed and the constructed nature of the visual image. Through this self-reflexive engagement, the photography of photography serves as an anatomization of the photographic medium itself, questioning the boundaries of truth and fiction, selfhood, and the constructed gaze.