VACD MA Photography Thesis Exhibition by Michelia Kramer
Confronting Assumptions
VACD MA Photography Thesis Exhibition by Michelia Kramer
Exhibition Date: 6-31 July 2013
Location: Galata Fotografhanesi (http://www.galatafotografhanesi.com)
Our tendency to define individuals as unrealistically unidimensional is as unacknowledged as it is harmful. “Confronting Assumptions” is an interactive photography exhibition that engages both subjects and audience members in challenging their conscious and subconscious presumptions about others while questioning how they choose to present their own identities. The exhibition will be an interactive exercise where participants will attempt to match portraits of subjects with images of their personal effects in order to uncover the hidden biases within us all. The goal is not to shame or punish participants for recognizing internalized prejudices, but rather to start a dialogue within ourselves and our communities addressing culturally embedded discrimination, intolerance, injustice and identity.
Ideally this exhibit will lead to further discussions and projects that encourage looking beyond stereotypes and eliminating intolerance, and sparking questions about self-identification in the process: Why do we ascribe certain meanings to simple things? Who are we if only viewed through limited, visible objects? How much of my image-formation is shaped by my desire to maintain a certain public image? What does this say about me and my own internalized discrimination?
