Futureportrait: a constructed glimpse of tomorrow

Future Portrait looks at the future. Using portraiture as a window it will examine the aesthetics, the technologies and the people of the future. Portraiture is an ideal vehicle for this exploration because it allows us an individual and personal connection with the sitters, giving us insight into their world and existence. Portraiture’s many diverse styles (formal, street, environmental) are considered as portals to ‘what may be’. My main goal for this project has been to create a body of work that visually explores the ideas, concepts and thoughts explored in imagery from the realm of Japanese art and culture, the West’s perception of Japan, and both Eastern and Western science fiction visions of futuristic dystopia.

Constructed carefully in studio spaces and highly lit locations, my photographs become ‘home’ to a cast of actors and models who act out a series of stories created from story boards. Images made in contemporary Japan and blended with studio constructions to build a new vision. Through these elaborate tableaux photographs, I am interested in exploring a my vision of a possible future. From a man and his manga styled “tamagotchi” girlfriend driving in a car, to a typical street scene of a Blade Runner inspired noodle bar or scene from a suburban train, Future Portrait aims to give a glimpse in to tomorrow.