…shift

Heavily inspired by the concept of Edward Weston’s “Pepper No. 30” , Audre Lorde’s “Uses of the Erotic”, and parts of Carlos Saavedra’s “Madres Terra” construction, I began to curate the pieces included in this book. I wanted to remove the idea of sex in conjunction with the human form. To embrace one’s erotic without the use of others’ implicating eyes upon them. I asked twelve people from the ages of 18-21, with ranging gender expressions, backgrounds, and cultures, "When did you notice a shift in how you were perceived by others or society?” and what their favorite feature of themself is. I took photos of that feature and placed it alongside their answer with no initial context to the reader. Placing photographs of human forms, sometimes not in conversation with each other, in the pages between the participants’ answers, served to exhibit these sexless captures in a new context- that of what the participant answered previously. Herein springs my inspiration from Edward Westons “Pepper No. 30”. The idea that viewers can find an unsuspecting photograph of a pepper sensual without the artists conscious decision was interesting to me and felt reminiscent of girlhood. To be found as something that you had not intended to be in the most invasive ways spoke to me and my growing up as a girl. I wanted to destroy that idea. To reclaim my —as Audre Lorde writes of it— erotic. To have my models eat, absorb, destroy, make mess of, and enjoy these Weston-peppers was to take back what others think of them. There is so much more that I wanted to do with this piece but did not have the time, resources, experience, or thought to put forward into it. May this book be one of many in my search to reclaim my erotic.