The Self-Portrait Project is, according to its creator Andy Lin, a "glorified photobooth": it works by a camera shooting through a two-way mirror, the subject taking their own photo via a remote control. The result, he argues, is a uniquely honest picture: "You can't be dishonest in a picture you take of yourself, even if you're trying to portray yourself as something else."New York-based photographer Lin has amassed more than 300,000 self-portraits in the four years he has been taking his project to parties and NGO events in his city. But when an opportunity arose earlier this month to go to Haiti, he grabbed it with both hands: "I have been wanting to use the Self-Portrait Project in the context of social change, because it allows the subject control of their own image," he says. "I've been wanting to go somewhere where people have been marginalised, or victimised, or forgotten, to remind the world beyond that they're there."
Working with Haitian housing activist groups Frakka and Under Tents,the Self-Portrait Project was set up in four encampments and shantytowns: Grace Village, Cité Soleil, Mozayik and Solino. More than 280,000 Haitians are still living in camps, three and a half years after the earthquake that struck their country. They live without clean water, at risk of cholera and crime, and with the constant threat of eviction. Lin wants to exhibit these images to raise awareness of their plight.
He sees the project as a powerful tool of self-expression, each participant presenting themselves as they wish to be seen. "It's not like me as a photojournalist, going in there and asking, 'Hey, who here was raped? Can I take your photo?' The camera was set up in each camp only after the agreement of a council of residents. At first Lin's team faced scepticism. "But once we set up and people realised we weren't trying to exploit them, they became a lot more open.
"We took a printer, and I printed out a photo for everyone who participated. It's not a lot, but we left something for the communities."
"The kids were full of life," commented Teresa Lopes, who accompanied the project to Haiti on behalf of Pink Stone, the foundation that funded it. "There was only one camp we went to – Cité Soleil, the largest and most dangerous shantytown – where you could see fear on their faces. Three days earlier someone had been shot, their body left burning. Every night there is gunfire, the bullets go whizzing over their makeshift plastic tents. The kids dig holes and hide in them, because that is the only way they can feel safe."Some people didn't see the point of the project at first, Lopes says: "Many of the Haitians in camps haven't seen themselves in a long time – I know some people don't even own a photograph of themselves; people hadn't seen the way they looked in so long."
"Pretty much every person I talked to had a similar story," Lin adds. "Almost everyone had had a family member die, they'd lost their houses, they were out of jobs. In Grace Village, there were some adolescent men, who were sceptical about what we were doing. They spoke perfect English, and one of them had been to Miami University. He'd come back to Haiti, got caught up in the earthquake, and now he couldn't leave."
These self-portraits have a unique vibrancy about them; most of the subjects have chosen to smile, a testament to their resilience. And while these Haitians have little power over their daily lives, for those few seconds they were in control.
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/sep/29/haiti-selfie-self-portrait-project
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire