The Game
Why
What is the world? Maybe it’s a game, where we try on a bunch of different “me’s” until we realize…none of it is me - and it’s all me. What if everything in the world, and every way of being in the world, has one thing in common - limits.
The world provides cultural templates that we can try on if we like. We bring them to life by our decision to wear them. And we can discard them just as easily.
How
All the doll clothes in this photograph were hand crocheted by my maternal grandmother, Nellie Freeman.
The setting is a dollhouse purchased at one of my favorite shops, Circa.
To make the paper dolls I photographed the doll clothes, made the tabs digitally, and combined the clothes onto one sheet. Then I printed the sheet, folded it, and photographed the folded sheet. (I delight in recursions!!!)
For the dress the girls are bringing to life I printed the photograph with the tabs, then placed the real dress on the photograph, and photographed them together.
You can see these objects in the video displayed near this text.
I photographed Astrid holding a white card and Liv “cutting” the card with a giant pair of plastic scissors bought at an after-Halloween sale (thanks for the tip, Kim Volker!) Then I put everything together in Photoshop.
The scene outside the porch is a painting made by my art teacher, Doris.
