Touch: The Skin Has Eyes

 

"What is a sense of one's self? To a large extent, it has to do with touch, with how we feel... Not that our sense of self is necessarily accurate. Each of us has an exaggerated mental picture of our body... Touch fills our memory with a detailed key as to how we're shaped. A mirror would mean nothing without touch... But, above all, touch teaches us that life has depth and contour; it makes our sense of the world and ourself three-dimensional." -Diane Ackerman

I chose this particular section because it is accurate how differently we view ourselves and how we have a different view than what others see. I wanted to demonstrate different perspectives with the mirror. The water was used to show the distortion that we sometimes see and the depth that our minds are capable of seeing. While taking the picture, it was interesting to see the difference between what I was seeing without the mirrors, the mirror on the left, and the mirror on the right. They contain the same content, yet a slight change in perspective changes the image itself. What we touch gives us a sense of what something looks like.

Touch: Hair

"Hair deeply affects people, can transfigure or repulse them. We can change its color ad texture when the mood strikes us, but in time it will return to its original form..." -Diane Ackerman

I chose this section because we do not realize how much hair really can affect us, as it is something we are used to seeing everyday. I never thought much about how hair can change the way we feel until my mother endured radiochemotherapy. Her main concern throughout the entire process was losing her hair. I found this strange as there were many seemingly more important concerns during the treatment, but it made me realize how we feel about our hair affects our self-esteem and the way we view others. We make certain assumptions about others based on their hair style or color. I composed and created this image to demonstrate the variety of textures and colors that hair can be.