Anouk Kruithof
http://www.ahead.website
Anouk Kruithof became interested in how to create an anonymous portrait, where someone’s identity is unknown, and so began creating this AHEAD project. Kruithof’s focus became the back of the head, due to the fact that one cannot see obvious characteristics, such as gender, nationality, age, facial expression and emotion. Removing all these indefinable features, one cannot be seen as who they are; they are only seen by how they look from behind, and how they style their hair. Kruithof made sure that all the photographs were taken in the same way, composed the same, following a strict shooting strategy to make sure that all the portraits were unified and no one had their own identity. The artist exhibited this work in colour order, using a machine that processed the images by their colour value, so that the people were completely anonymous and the backgrounds that each person was shot against, alongside the hair colour were the only ways of putting one person next to the other. They are essentially inferred portraits, similar to Simpson work where the hair is the subject of the images. Obviously my work focuses on identity, and showing ones identity, but not through their face, through their hair and how they construct their hair in relation to how they want to be perceived, in turn how they show their identity. However the process, composition and aesthetics of these images is what mainly inspires my work, how each image is taken in the same way, the shooting strategy being strict and brutal. From this work, I want to make sure my images are all composed in the same way, showing the hair as the main focus, and using the same positioning, colouring and t shirt colour so that the image all correlate and can be viewed similar to Kruithof’s, in a large grid shape, with the only thing changing being the subject of the image, the hairstyle.
Anouk Kruithof became interested in how to create an anonymous portrait, where someone’s identity is unknown, and so began creating this AHEAD project. Kruithof’s focus became the back of the head, due to the fact that one cannot see obvious characteristics, such as gender, nationality, age, facial expression and emotion. Removing all these indefinable features, one cannot be seen as who they are; they are only seen by how they look from behind, and how they style their hair. Kruithof made sure that all the photographs were taken in the same way, composed the same, following a strict shooting strategy to make sure that all the portraits were unified and no one had their own identity. The artist exhibited this work in colour order, using a machine that processed the images by their colour value, so that the people were completely anonymous and the backgrounds that each person was shot against, alongside the hair colour were the only ways of putting one person next to the other. They are essentially inferred portraits, similar to Simpson work where the hair is the subject of the images. Obviously my work focuses on identity, and showing ones identity, but not through their face, through their hair and how they construct their hair in relation to how they want to be perceived, in turn how they show their identity. However the process, composition and aesthetics of these images is what mainly inspires my work, how each image is taken in the same way, the shooting strategy being strict and brutal. From this work, I want to make sure my images are all composed in the same way, showing the hair as the main focus, and using the same positioning, colouring and t shirt colour so that the image all correlate and can be viewed similar to Kruithof’s, in a large grid shape, with the only thing changing being the subject of the image, the hairstyle.