ARTS 107
Project 1: An Archival Impulse
Project Reflection
My photographic archive is titled “A Questionnaire for Female Exercise Lovers”. I came up with 5 prompts (listed below) for my participants to respond to:
Headshot
Action shot (Shot of you working out in action)
What is your favorite machine/equipment//exercise?
What’s your least favorite machine/equipment/exercise?
Mirror reflection shot
These prompts aim to investigate the narrative of female exercise participants. Many studies have shown that the gym is a male-dominated place. While this is a true statement supported by statistics, I worry that the reiteration and repetition of it will perpetuate stereotypes in the workout environments as the disadvantaged get further discouraged from utilizing the exercise space. I believe the visual presentation in response to the prompts listed above will contribute to creating a more cohesive narrative that highlights the female representations in the gym, as well as embracing variations and differences among each individual. I ended up using the handwritten answers to the questionnaire as the title for prompts 3 and 4, which added more personal connections between the photo and the subject.
While interacting with the participants, some of them weren’t sure if they would qualify as participants for my project because they were “not regular gym-goers”. However, the purpose of this project is to demonstrate the nuances of female exercisers, not exacerbating an essentialized stereotype. I was able to clarify my intentions with the participants before the shooting process, and this very interaction, in itself, reinforced my initial goal set for the project. Futher, I see this project as an archive that documents a proud and courageous moment of the participants. it is important to acknowledge how brave my participants were - presenting their bodies in front of the camera can be a vulnerable moment. Ideally, it would be nice to have more participants, which may be able to demonstrate a trend indicating the workout habits and culture of women at Oxy’s gym, but many politely turned down my request.
In terms of organization, I arranged the photos in order of the prompts, and each profile consisted of 5 photos in total. Dedicating 5 photos for each subject might be a lot, but I am really interested in creating an inclusive narrative, which might be harder to archive with fewer photos. The organization style was also partially inspired by Eleanor Antin’s Carving: A Traditional Sculpture (1972), a photographic sculpture project that documented Antin’s weight loss journey over the course of 37 days. Antin took 4 photos of her body (front, back, 2 sides) in an effort to create a cohesive vision that resembles the three-dimensional viewing experience one comes across when examining a physical sculpture. Therefore, I believe a higher quantity of photos devoted to each individual subject is crucial to creating a stronger and fuller experience for the audience.