Sex and Gender studies: Femme Fatale

ARTIST STATEMENT 

I am primarily a Documentary Photographer, working in the broad field of social and cultural study with an emphasis on alternative and socially disadvantaged communities and ways of living. Central to my practice are the artistic principals of narrative, emotive resonance and overall aesthetic appeal brought about through the study of light, colour and composition. It is from this place that I produce my work, rather than simply an intent to document, and it is in this way that I have crafted my story on the Femme Fatale's of Northbidge. In this series I have infused a fictional element in to the narrative. For ethical reasons in my previous work I have maintained a neutral perspective as a documentarian, but as the subjects in my series have the privilege of choice in their vocation, I have , with their consent employed the privilege of creativity and fiction in my work. 

There is no set up involved, I have simply documented what they do as they do it, but through creative use of available light, composition and editing have created a fictional narrative that draws on the age old idea of the Femme Fatale, or Fatal Female - one who uses her feminine prowess to ensnare and emasculate her male counterpart. 

Photography is a passport to other worlds. Being a privileged person I want to understand the life of those less privileged, being a female I want to try and understand the lure of a woman from a man's point of view, being conservative I want to witness sleaze. It is this desire to dabble in, to experience and try to understand things other than what I know that informs my work. Whether broached with a social and ethical conscience as in my journalistic work or as an indulgence in my own curiosity as with this work, my camera is my ticket in.