Undergoing a metamorphosis of swelling emotion, Francesca Woodman's self-portrait series emphasizes the evocative power of self-portraits, igniting a feverish passion for creating self-portraits of my own. Her work is energized by the delicate flurries of long exposures and embellished with elements of her romantic and whimsical dreams. The progression of time flowing within her self-portraits raises the chronological series like a growing child, urging me to document my emotional and physical change through photography.
Although influenced by my fascination with Woodman’s self-portraits, the origin of my work is created by my own visions of fictional fantasy, as they fluster with intimacy and curiosity. Experimenting with an array of various processes and themes for my photographic work allowed me to diverge from taking photographs that simply reflect the innate aesthetic of the subject, as I strive to manipulate the peculiarity and beauty of different subjects into art that circulates the blood of magical surrealism. The two tintypes in this portfolio were wonderful to create; watching the brassy liquid wash over the metal plate, birthing such a haunting yet beautiful image enhanced the timeless fantasy of the darkroom and tangibility of the film process. Unlike any series I have done before, my current narrative of self-portraits has created a chronological collection that blossoms within elements of intimacy and self-growth. The 35 mm film camera is the child of my right brain; using film for this series was extremely technical, as I would prefocus my lens on a chair and then stand in the chair's former position for every shot.
Producing my work as my own subject enhances the way my eyes choose to see the natural world; my photographic work is timeless, organic, and raw. My self-portraits are laced with fantasy, and although paralyzed by the blink of the camera's eye, movement and agitation bleed from the fiber prints that are rebirthed into the art of visual poetry.
Olivia creates imagery that is unique, timeless, and personal. Olivia is extremely dedicated to her craft. She has curated a personal style that is rare at a young age. Choosing to make images on film requires discipline and Olivia has the passion to be a great photographer. - George Fiala, AP Photography Teacher
Orchard Vignette
Taken with a pinhole camera in 2019, this image vividly illustrates the flow of dreamlike flares within my body of work. The pinhole camera is one of the first film cameras that a photography student will experiment with and is a camera anybody can build themselves.
The pinhole camera I used was a square wooden box with a pin-sized hole in the front which behaves as the camera lens. This was this first self portrait I ever took. I placed the camera in front of an apple tree while slowly falling back into the leaves. This gave the image the appearance of a vignette of leaves, hence the name Orchard Vignette.
Dark Spring
This image was one of the most memorable pieces to create. This past summer, my family and I drove to southern Colorado for a week. In our backyard, there was a river that wrapped around the house. The sun was setting really early that day, and river glistened with melted bronze flecks of glittery light. My artist’s eye instantly told me to grab my camera and make something of this moment before the sun set. My sister willingly went into the river, even with snakes in the water, for the shot. I really love how her hair and the water created a very metallic looking image.
Liquid Lungs
This was taken during the same shoot as the previous image. There is such strong emotion that bleeds from this image due to the subject’s pale and cold-tinted skin as it crashes into choppy and frozen water. I love the composition line that divides the subject from the water.
Agitation
During the COVID lockdown last spring, I had no access to the darkroom so I tried to emulate the whimsical appearance of film using a digital camera. For this self-portrait, I wanted to capture the agitation created by the lockdown, so I put on a cyclops goggle scuba mask, representing isolation, while also incorporating the movement of fluttering butterflies inside of the mask to illustrate the creative flow I felt during a time when I was left alone to be the only critic of my work, thus allowing my artistic ideas to be drawn out from my rawest and most pure self.
Hour of the Witch
This was my first time using a large format camera which was much more technical than what I was used to at that point (since I was a sophomore), but the process was an incredible introduction to my work with film, which is what I’ve been exclusively using for the past two and a half years. I wanted to create something peculiar and weird. Maybe even contradicting, because of the how the cross is framing such a sinister subject. The contrast in this image adds such a heavy density to the narrative of this piece.
Traveller
The assignment for this image was “location cinematic portrait.” To create a frozen-in-time, cinematic look, I used a strobe light along with a fast shutter speed to preserve every fold of the silk scarf to the swirl of storm clouds in the background. I took this image on the roof of my carpark to fully capture the detail of the sky.
Levitation
This is a continuation of the location cinematic portrait. I was striving for strong composition that would fill in the empty space; the contrast between the graceful subject and the ominous background.
Festival of Flora
Self-portraits on film have been one of the most difficult projects I’ve ever worked on. Most people would assume that self-portraits are way easier than using a subject other than yourself, but that is absolutely not true - especially on film. Just one shoot probably takes at least 3 hours due to the precision I have to apply to the focus, shutter speed, fstop, ISO, aperture, and exposure.
Sohaib
During my Intro to Photography class in 2017, we learned how to make tintypes, which was taken on a thin sheet of tin. I developed the tintype with photographic emulsion. Each tintype is one of a kind since you shoot the image directly on the metal sheet.
Ode to Innocence
This is another tintype I made in 2019. I wanted to create a still life because I felt as if my portfolio lacked images of inanimate objects. I was at an antique store searching for an object to use for my tintype, and there was a giant bowl full of vintage babydoll heads. It was weird and peculiar, which was exactly what I had in mind. I went to the quarry the next day at school, and cut some thorns from a bush to place on top of the doll’s head, almost to add a sense of purity to something so visually strange. Processing this tintype was wonderful; watching the brassy liquid wash over the metal plate, birthing such a haunting yet beautiful image enhanced the timeless fantasy of the darkroom and tangibility of the film process.
Frills and Lace
Taken on 35 mm film in 2020, I wanted to create a self-portrait that looked visually hazy and dreamy, crafting a piece of magical surrealism.
Public Gaol
When I went to Williamsburg in 2019, I brought my film camera to take self-portraits because I knew that there would be perfect backgrounds for images. I went to a jailhouse called “the Public Gaol”, and was instantly amazed by the giant door that divided each room. This image is simple, while providing depth and dimension with the array of textures and colors to give this picture a visual flare.
Nostalgia
This was the first cyanotype I ever made. I took a digital image of the subject, and printed out a negative and translucent print to use. Then, I placed the negative image over a piece of photographic paper that I had brushed over with a developing solution, and set it in the sun to expose. Finally, I took in the paper after being exposed and let it wash.
Twins
This was taken on 35 mm film in 2018. This was the first time I had ever used 35 mm film before, so I mostly used this shoot as a trial and error sort of thing. I used my twin cousins and had them wear contrasting outfits for a visual dissociation from each other, despite them being twins. The subjects’ blank stare and the held hands washes the image with peculiarity.
Bloom
This is my final photograph, which is also a self-portrait, that was taken on 35 mm in 2021. I used a slightly longer shutter speed than what I usually would use to create a soft glow from motion blur. This tree had such beautiful composition to frame me, and I made sure to utilize the open space between the limbs of the tree to create an engaging image.
