Petra Collins
The Teenage Gaze
Petra Collins is an American contemporary artist which explores photography, videography, fashion and art. In one of Collin's first collections, between 2010-2015, she explored the life of a teenager, often glamourised, as a time of exploration, passion, sex and discovery, this is 'The Teenage Gaze'. These photographs explore the life of women growing up, expecting the life of luxury as they wait for the age of freedom. Although this freedom seems exciting and mysterious before reaching this age, in reality it can a lot more stressful than you think but Collins photographs this period as a time of celebration the the female youth.
This series focusses on teenagers, specifically women, growing and living through their self obsessed, how to be perceived era of their lives. As we grow, we want to explore ourselves and our interests while having as much fun as you can. This dynamic drives us to live this period for as long as we possibly can. Collins displays these emotions within 'The Teenage Gaze' and allows her audience to relate and explore why having exploring yourself when you can is so important even if you find it cringe-worthy.
As phone are more accessible than ever, the front facing camera had created a new revolution, the selfie. A selfie is a photo taken usually with the front facing camera of a digital device which captures a photo of oneself or with multiple people at once. This way of capturing memories and moments is rather wholesome even if it boosts egos but it does do the job. Although this was a fun thing to do with your friends at first, it has evolved to a competition of who looks better and who captures the better pose. These selfies then get shared to social media to get confirmation of this competition with one another. Although this is what the selfie has seemed to have done to the youth, lots actually do just want to share and enjoy their moments without this following standard of having to look a certain way. However you feel about yourself then depicts on how you feel about others.
Petra Collins shot this series using 35mm film, much lot a lot of her other work. She uses this as a way to capture the raw scene and the oversaturated affect film photography produces. Collins states she favours using natural or very minimal lighting when making her work and avoids retouching her photos using digital editing softwares. This editing process occurs when developing her film.
