For my self portrait about how I identify as a person, I decided to split my face into four quadrants. The four quadrants represent me as the past, present and future version of myself or who I hope to be. My inspirations came from Michael Jackson’s album which was titled, “Past, Future and Future Book”. That album was a collection of his old work and the new, which shows his growth as a creative genius. One of the first short books we read for class, “A Feminist Manifesto” kind of pushed the boundaries of what a women can and should be in their life. Four out four of my four quadrants are considered male dominated fields. I feel as though women are just now getting their respect in those fields.
The first quadrant is my future which I hope has something to do behind the camera. It wasn't until recently that I fell in love with the camera and the power that comes with it. I learned in my intro to photography taught by Prof. O’Neil that photography is power and that it's another version of storytelling. For me it's hard to articulate my feelings and the reasons I take certain photos but through practice it comes a little easier. My goal is to create images and videos to inspire the next generation of little black girls.
The second quadrant has to be one of my favorites. Basketball is one of my favorite sports to watch, I can literally watch every game that is shown on tv. One of my favorite memories was flipping back and forth between watching Kobe Last Game and Golden State beating the record of the Bulls for the most wins. During this quarantine having no sports to watch I feel like is the most depressing thing that happened to me. Watching basketball was a stress reliever for me and now having plenty of time to reflect maybe it was an unhealthy habit. Fortunately I was able to catch 2 games before the season was suspended. One of goals using the camera would be to be one of those camera people recording the game from the baseline. I know this may sound weird but it would be pretty cool to be hit by one of my favorite WNBA or NBA players. For now I will have to settle for throwback games on ESPN.
The third quadrant probably caused me to be broke on numerous occasions since I started making my own money. Concerts are a close second to basketball. I’ve been to over 20 concerts. From seeing Alicia Keys x3, Maxwell x2, Toni Braxton, Beyonce, Bruno Mars, Janet Jackson x3, etc. Besides the show going on, one of my favorite things to observe is the different colors you see in the crowd. Music brings every race, social class, sexual orientation and political views into a building to enjoy each other's company for 2-3 hours. Yeah, I'm that weirdo that watches people have fun and smiles.
The final quadrant represents my love for the medical field. From a young age I was watching real ER shows and Dr. 91210. I was always fascinated by medicine, especially plastic surgery. I was that kid in class when asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” me, “ I want to suck the fat out of people, do boob jobs and rhinoplasties.” Until my senior year of high school in 2013 I was going to major in Biology to become a doctor. Obviously that didn't happen but I ended becoming an EMT in 2016 for 3 years before deciding to go back to school in 2017. My family asks me if I would be scared to be working right now. Me being me, I probably would’ve been scared but that's the job I signed up for to help those who can’t help themselves.
To be honest it was hard to make this self portrait because I questioned myself. Did I really know myself? I’ve been on earth for 25 years thankfully but it took me a while to come up with this concept. So I decided to create my face out of things that make me happy.
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