Liz Calvi

Photographer
Moments of Being
Location: Hartford, Connecticut
Nationality: American
Biography:   Liz Calvi b.1990 After studying at Pratt Institute, Liz received her BFA from the University of Hartford in 2012. She utilizes photography to explore her interpersonal relationships and ask questions about sexuality and the idea of gender... MORE
Public Story
Moments of Being
Copyright Liz Calvi 2024
Updated May 2015
Location Connecticut
Topics Fine Art, Friends + Family, Gender Identity, Personal, Portraiture, Youth



Project Summary

Moments of Being is a photographic exploration of how American fantasies regarding femininity shape gender identity and relationships of those I'm closest to. I photograph friends and family as I've been reflecting on youth, gender identity and sexuality. I began consistently working on this series in 2014 and cannot foresee a strict timeframe on the series. I'm interested in the relationships my family and I form and want to explore them continually over time. The photographs have been made so far in Connecticut, New York and Vermont. I will continue to travel and photograph depending on where my family and friends are.

Statement

Influenced by Naomi Wolf's idea of The Beauty Myth, I photograph my family and friends in order to question the societal norms imposed on the female body by mass media. I am interested in the way photographs can pull from the subconscious and illuminate the point where dreams coincide with reality.

I combine a diaristic documentation with more staged pictures; a technique that allows me to capture both the public and private personas of my subjects. I view the staged pictures as a collaboration; a place where my subject can freely represent themselves within a dreamlike narrative. This fusion of the psychological fantasies my subjects and I create with a documentarian approach exposes the tensions and subtle links between our bodies and minds. I want the pictures to question fantasies of femininity and offer a queer counter-narrative to societal norms.

When looking at our image-saturated culture, photography has helped me and my loved ones to detangle what it means to be a queer woman amidst all the fragmented views of ourselves in American culture. Above all, I want this project to evoke a truth about my subject's psyche " a way for my subjects and I to understand and relieve the weight of identity in our interpersonal relationships.

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