Interview by Yukta Taneja

Yukta Taneja: Who is Mrs. Mirage?

Taylor Small: For me, Mrs. Mirage is the visual identity that these photographs are taking on within the entire series. While the original photographs are of real women, the final compositions come from my initial interaction with these photographs. When I see I photograph I connect with, I can see it in collage form or mixed with other photos in my collection.

Yukta Taneja: What is your relationship with the identities present in your series?

Taylor Small: With this series, it didn’t start out with the idea of working with just photographs of women. As time went on, I noticed that the photographs I found myself gravitating to work with were the ladies. The time periods I admire and gain inspiration from are the 1950s to the 1960s, and these women allow me to, in a way, insert myself into the past. When I was collecting images for this project, it was very instinctual which ones I picked up. Some of them I felt as if I knew, some felt as if they weren’t meant to be separated from the owner and needed a home, and others I admired the artistry of the photograph. Knowing I would be cutting up the photos I found, I felt a real responsibility for handling the images and the lives within them. I love the idea of identities of the past getting a chance to be apart of the present.

Yukta Taneja: What does the repetition of eyes in your series indicate? Do you think they play an important role in understanding identities?

Taylor Small: Eyes are very common throughout this series. I think the eyes are a feature that I notice first in old photographs, and allow me to understand the life that person is experiencing. The use of eyes came from the idea that women during the 50s had a lot of pressure on them to be presentable to the eye. I also wanted to show that a dominant theme in society during this time for young women was to be a wife, and look the part.

Yukta Taneja: Describe your creative process in one word.

Taylor Small: Considerate.

Yukta Taneja: What challenges did you face while collaging images from the 1950’s?

Taylor Small: The content not being relatable to others was probably the most challenging. I knew that working around a time period where life was difficult for women would cause questions from those around me. This is a time where I admire the visual aesthetics and consideration of photographs, fashion, makeup, objects, etc. The way I work with the images appears to be rough, and I realized that the destruction was a form of visualizing how I feel I can’t admire this part of history. I want people to be aware about how I see this era from the perspective of a 21-Century woman, and I know it’s a time that’s been romanticized, but also how we can learn from the history.