when I wake up in the morning I grab my
smartphone open the camera app and snap
a quick photo of myself I've been doing
this almost every day for over two years
and I now have over seven hundred photos
of myself when I wake up this is an
ongoing art project that I call awake
this project arose from the common
perception that we look bad and even
ugly when we wake up in the morning
puffy face bloodshot eyes bed head first
thing in the morning is generally not
when we want our photo taken
waking up though is a rare time of day
when I can take a photo of myself
without having any preconceived notions
about what I want that photo to look
like I don't attempt to stage the photo
either being half-asleep allows me to
take a truer self-portrait
because I'm not conscious enough to make
any judgments or decisions about the
photo as I'm taking it I was inspired by
feminist performance artists in the
1970s who used their own faces and
bodies repeatedly in their artwork to
investigate self image and self
perception of women I believe we can
similarly use today's technology to
challenge the norm an especially
challenge unrealistic physical
expectations of beauty usually when
taking a self-portrait sometimes known
as a selfie people want to present
themselves in a certain way and they
only post their best photos to their
social media sites with the awake
project though I strive to capture what
I actually look like at a certain point
in time not what I want to look like and
I post each and every photo to my
Instagram page sometimes at that odd
time of day I get a photo that captures
a hidden part of me this photo captures
a vulnerability that I wouldn't normally
want photographed over the last two and
a half years that I've been doing this
project I've seen myself in hundreds of
candid photo
many of them unflattering and some of
them funny and as a result I'm more
comfortable with my face as it is and as
it changes and ages to the awake project
has empowered me to show my face to the
world
without judgement of myself social
change can start with seemingly small
mundane actions like sharing a selfie
thank you