PhotoVogue releases the third digital art collection drop on Issues of Representation in partnership with Voice. These seven artists from the NFT residency program present artworks expanding the visual landscape of photography and beyond.
Simone Roscher
What is the inspiration behind your NFT? The images of my NFT collection are part of the series “Unknown Land”, that I started in 2021 when struggling with depression and longing for a world that makes me want to live to the fullest again. I fantasised about a place of beauty and wonder, an unknown land full of quiet magic that I wanted to capture in my photographs.
Just as I want to immerse myself in this imagined place that is filled with excitement, temptations and stimulation of all senses, I want to fully immerse myself in life again – a life that excites, tempts, stimulates.
In the beginning, imagining and creating this special world was perhaps no more than kind of an escape from reality, my own little haven of hope. But now I notice more and more how I have actually started to walk on the paths of this unknown land of my imagination – the paths of healing.
Ashley Markle
What is the inspiration behind your NFT? I began photographing the Columbia University Wrestling Team at the beginning of this year. This project explores the mind-body connection of each wrestler and how those individuals contribute to the collective. Each boy’s advanced physicality combined with a unique outlook on what physical touch means, allows these wrestlers to communicate and emote freely in a safe space. For this NFT Collection, I created cyanotypes of a few images from this series. The team is a diverse group of boys from varying geographical locations and socioeconomic situations. However, the camaraderie amongst them would make you think twice about their differences. The choice to use cyanotypes allows the viewer to perceive these wrestlers without any preconceived notions.
Jaimy Gail
What is the inspiration behind your NFT? Right now I’m in the middle of making a new long term project called The Second Sex. In short the project is about the role clothing plays in the formation of female identity within contemporary patriarchal society. In what way do cultural, social and historical factors shape the way in which women cross-culturally shape their identity through clothing? This year’s theme “Issues of Representation” suits this project very well. Although the
project is still ongoing, I thought this nft collection could be a great opportunity to give a glance of the new project by showing the very first portraits I made so far. Very practically The Second Sex consists of a series of portraits in which each portrait two or more women are shown, dressed in the same type of clothing, depending on their cultural and/or social identity. The women pose in front of a hand painted canvas with a scene that matches the cultural, religious or socio-economic background of the women portrayed. These background cloths, in combination with the women and their clothing, form a scene that depicts a role that women can play, depending on the (sub)culture in which they find themselves. It shows women from different cultures, ages and backgrounds with the aim of creating a diverse picture of how women cross-culturally shape their identity through clothing. The celebration of women is central to this art photography project. It is not a documentary photo project, but a series of constructed portraits. I want to give new visual interpretations to women as a higher being.
Clothing is a powerful tool that can magnify a woman’s erotic charms, or hide her body, due to the moral codes of the specific culture. It is precisely this ambiguous connection with eroticism and conservatism that regularly leads to skewed eyes and even heated discussions. With the clothes a woman wears, she speaks a non-verbal language, which is understood in different ways depending on the identity of the viewer.
Sanna Lehto
What is the inspiration behind your NFT?
The inspiration behind the NFTs was that I wanted to take photos of my parents to embrace their age and life experience. I also wanted to work with my hands to add a further layer to the images.
I had found old pearls from a recycle center before the residency and I was inspired by their shape and organic feeling. I wanted to give them a central role next to my parents. I started to make pearl clusters by hand and placed them in front of my parents eyes.
Encouraged by NFT platforms, I was inspired to try adding new elements to the images; I continued placing more pearls to the portraits in the post-processing to give an impression of compressed chaos. They were like clusters of information overload that social media constantly feeds us.
Martina Albertazzi
What is the inspiration behind your NFT? I have been living in the Mojave Desert of California for almost four years. This area is often misrepresented. At first look it might seem a barren landscape, devoid of life. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
The series I have been working on with local artist and friend of mine Roadkill Reno aims to bring the desert to life by documenting sustainable taxidermy that doesn’t take advantage of animals in the fragile ecosystem where we live, but instead celebrates and honors them.
Arielle Gray
What is the inspiration behind your NFT? I am inspired by the beauty of Blackness, the Earth, the home. I have more questions than answers. I am constantly moved by the ways in which we occupy space and time--the ways we stamp our time. I am drawn to resistance. To me, there is a resistance in choosing not to look. The camera is a powerful tool that begs the subject to look or be looked at. Without that, what do we have? What are we being asked to do as the photographer or as the sitter when we choose to look away?
Claudia Amatruda
What is the inspiration behind your NFT? The inspiration behind my NFT came from the preface of the book Swann s Road , the first chapter of Marcel Proust s great work In Search of Lost Time . I discovered that Proust admitted his illness in the very organisation of his life as a creator, without fighting it as a negative force to be defeated and excluded from his work. I think this is the perfect beginning for my new autobiographical photographic work. Trying to make "good use of my bad health".
