For over two centuries the world has looked to photography for its representations of reality. Its advent in the 19th century marked a quantum leap beyond the “reality” depicted by painters and draughtsmen. Current times have come to question photography’s relationship to reality and the nature of objective reality itself. The reason is simple – people have unprecedented power to manipulate reality, photographic and otherwise. Two photographs of the same object or person can appear to be very different.  Which is real?

Before and especially after the digital revolution, photographs have been shown to be easily manipulated and altered.  Add to that the economical and wide availability of multiple modes of photograph making and publishing, and it becomes clear that anyone has the ability to use photographs to create or declare their own reality. Society has never been more focused on the individual than it is today. As is abundantly clear from social media today, we are who we think we are or want to be – in other words we are the images we project.

A massive amount of photos are uploaded every hour, every minute, every second and untold numbers of them already cohabit the net. Among them are millions of photos taken with web cameras. The question is how are these ubiquitous, low-fi photographs – and the current technologies behind them – reshaping photography? Their apparent lack of professional standards have encouraged greater spontaneity and unguarded self-expression   As a result, this low-fi approach has infiltrated its way into our most private places – our homes, our bedrooms, our celebrations and rituals.

With these series of self-portraits, all taken with web cameras, we are interested in learning about the role of social media and its impact on the ways we produce and consume pictures. Specifically these photographs explore how we make pictures and share them; how we use ourselves as subjects and present ourselves to the world; and how we stay in touch with our network of family, friends, colleagues, indeed anyone we get turned on by.

Ultimately, in this project we are creating non-linear narratives that reflect upon interpersonal power relationships, gender construction, religious imagery and alienation.

Available from ε+ε

Epsilon + Epsilon is a new media art collective comprised of Fernando Morales and Eugenio Salas. Based in Toronto and Mexico City, this duo’s work reflects upon issues surrounding, pop culture, self-representation and gender through the reenactment of fictional characters and situations.

The collective is interested in utilizing ordinary elements to redefine the extraordinary. Its name is inspired by the characters from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. In addition, they are interested in reflecting on the photographic medium, particularly on its hierarchy and potential of non-traditional photographic technologies.