Research- Margi Geerlinks

Margi Geerlinks is a Dutch artist and photographer who has used the body to experiment and explore how people identify themselves. In her work, the body takes centre stage and becomes as much the medium as the camera that captures the images.

Sometimes the images can even be slightly disturbing but they do hit on some more of the serious issues involved in how people view themselves and what they do, or not, to edit their identity and present something different.

Personally, although she is usually people and I am not, I stillfind it very interesting because of her approach and the points regarding identity that she is trying to portray. It hits home particularly when you consider the media pressure on the younger generation, which is what i interpret the boy with the sewing machine image to represent.

Research - Sandy Smith

Sandy Smith is a Scottish born, New York based artist who works in many mediums. Generally the term conceptual artist is applied but the work has many layers.

I'm mostly looking at him as he makes the most of installation spaces and the theme is revealing and being honest and identity. I think I can learn something from how he has done his installation and presented the work.

Research- Shane Lavalette

American photographer Shane Lavalette is best known for his commercial work or for his documentary work, which is more personal. The work I'm interested is a found set of images that he published.

Lavalette was in a junkyard looking at mangled wrecks of cars when he came across the set of photographs. The set was dozens of polaroid photographs of the owner of the car, usually taken while he was fishing and showing what he'd caught. Beneath each image was text that usually gave away the place, the date and something about the fish.

It's an interesting set and particularly when considering it from an identity angle. The polaroids give an impression of a lonely man who didn't have anyone to share the images with, yet at the same time they suggest a sense that he enjoyedhis life and was proud of the fish he caught. It's that interesting line between being lonely but being content with how you spend your days, possibly something most people can relate to.

At the same time, you start to wonder who is behind the lens. The owner surely couldn't have had a tripod and timer with him and suddenly you start to wonder who he shared this life with. It's great that one simple set of polaroids can tell you so much but conceal just enough to bug you with curiosity.

Something else i really like is how the writing is sometimes worn or smudged and unreadable. It suggests that they've been used, looked at, possibly ruined by a drink or a leak. It suggests a life has been lived with these photos rather than pristine images that don't tell you a lot.

Some more wishes

Been taking some more of the wishes, putting them onto the postcards and photographing them to try and get the project going ok. I've been putting them next to each other and it's making me feel more positive as I can see it coming together.

I know I need more wishes though and to make more progress photographing the ones I already have so that's my aim for the next couple of days.

It's still interesting seeing the mixture of wishes i'm receiving and it's helping me figure out which direction the final aim of my project will be heading in. It's becoming a fantastic way of learning about people I'd never even spoken to before and that's something the internet, and social networking especially, is changing the way we communicate.

Research - Erin Jane Nelson

Erin Jane Nelson is an American photographer I came across while reading a blog. She has some very quirky, interesting ideas and one that I thought was relevant for this project. Her own project "To all Erin Nelsons" is fantastic.

In January 2009 she found all the Erin Nelsons she could across America whom had a mailing address listed. She wrote a letter to each one, posting 243 of them at her local post boxes. She left her own address on the letters and waited to see what happened.



By the middle of January she was receiving mail, though sadly it was just her own letters being returned to her. However, in the middle of March she got a reply. One that out of the 13 she did get, wasn't just her own letter. Inside the envelope was a receipt, ink smudged and from a clerk's office for a marriage certificate. It also had a photograph of the bride and written on the back was the day she became Erin Nelson.



I'm not exactly sure what she put in the letters, but it's an interesting way of addressing identity and self. You tend to think about yourself as singular and it's easy to forget other people share your name. I'm guessing she began to wonder how similar or not they were to her. The response is also interesting, showing that many people just don't trust things they don't know, no matter how innocent or not they are.