Weekend Portfolio: Melanie Issaka
Text and Images by Melanie Issaka
Artist Bio
Melanie Issaka is a photographer living and working in London, UK. She holds a Graphic Design BA degree from The University of Brighton and a Photography MA from the Royal College of Art. Melanie’s practice aims to develop a social practice concerned with representation and history, with reference to the intersectionality of race and gender, as well as exploring the materiality of print and lens-based media.
Project Statement
‘Locating The Personal’ investigates visibility and colonial alienation within the Black community. A series of self-portraits, this body of work aims to question the representation of the Black Female figure within the photographic canon. Exploring the spaces I occupy and generate, confronting the materiality of my hair and body, I created images which blur the lines between the self and the other. Showcasing environments that govern images in degrees of abstraction. In moments of stillness, from milliseconds to hours, I strike a pose and imprint myself onto various photographic surfaces. Through encounters with material, I mark my presence. In negotiating between personal levels of visibility, I claim space. As I lie on photographic materials I am brought into focus. In referencing intersections of Race and Gender, this series utilises the photograph itself as a discursive and dynamic space for discourse.
Project Description
How do I locate myself when not performing for others? Our society teaches us to look at ourselves through the eyes of others, often leaving us feeling like a stranger in our own bodies. Wanting to create self-portraits yet feeling self-conscience and uncomfortable under the gaze of my camera, and in extension the gaze of an unknown audience, I created a series of images which examines my relationship with myself and the spaces I occupy. In total darkness, while making photograms in my bedroom, I lay on photographic paper and expose it to light. In these moments I am not performing for an audience but imprinting and documenting my presence through touch.
