IMOGEN TINGEY

DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY AND VISUAL ACTIVISM

ABOUT IMOGEN

Since the onset of the digital age humans have been immersed in a constant online stream of stereotypical images, which when taken at face value, can compound our own conscious and unconscious biases. This form of coercive persuasion feeds our view of the world and the people in it. The way we now access, consume and search for information has significantly changed and this has had a radical impact on how we form our opinions. Further to this technological advance in the surveillance of citizens going about their day to day lives and the ability to zoom in on a specific location anywhere in the world has created a sense of unprecedented exposure. By taking images from Google Earth where the faces have been blurred to protect people’s identities, I have used my own judgement and analysis to identify a generic stock image as a face to fit the environment. In my creation of new identities, I assessed various features including body position, skin tone, clothing and location. I had a consciousness of my own prejudices and an awareness that they contributed to a sense of unreliability within the creative process: a sense of reality and non-reality existing together in the one image.