Brahim Tall - Untitled
by Brahim Tall

LUCA School of Arts, Campus Sint Lukas, Brussels, Belgium
Graduation year: 2021

portfolio special mention call 'BLURRING THE LINES 2021', 2021

Untitled has its root in a personal question on identity and the related manifestation of it in one's appearance. Photographed during the first confinement of the Covid-19 pandemic, I worked inside of my apartment where I played with the materials at my disposal; my clothing, furniture, hairstyles, records, food, and most importantly my own body became part of the project, resulting in a series of self portraits. By using my personal possessions and combining them in different ways while taking on a variety of postures and attitudes, I tried to find an uncanny space between a cast of characters in various settings and myself in my apartment. This space unfolds by the objectification of my own body, which transforms it into a corpus that holds a temporary identity; rocking between photographer, actor and myself. With the reshuffling of my interior I attempted to create a flexible decor that somehow approaches these characters’ identities. The inclusion of a cable release, keeping it in my hand or at least in frame in most images, allowed me to try to introduce the viewer to an additional layer: the outward gaze. Inspired by Ariella Azoulays’ book The Civil Contract Of Photography and a basic understanding of Walter Benjamins’ work on reproduction I wanted to address the camera, its relation to the subject and the maker, the gaze of the viewer and the reproduction it enables - in this case of my own body, in or out of character. I combined these thoughts with one other influence; Las Meninas by Velasques in which the painter breaks tradition by incorporating himself painting thé painting into the work, eventually becoming a broadly discussed and researched work of art. It made me wonder about the existence or form of the fourth wall in photography. The fourth wall, a tool mostly used in film and theater, when broken, stretches out a hand to the viewer to let them know the work ‘knows’ they’re there. A direct bridge between different worlds: the one of the creator and the one of the audience. How does one approach this within photography? In this question lies the connection between the cable release, the characters, myself as a creator, my gaze meeting the viewers gaze and the concept of framing. By interacting with the camera in sometimes snapshot-esque pictures, I tried to break through the wall and connect with the viewer.


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