Disturb the Gaze...My Intentions...

In this project i want to disturb the viewers gaze.  I want to make aesthetically pleasing images but also make them confusing and disturbing.  This disturbing and confusing aspect may not be completely apparent at first.  I want to take 4 or 5 (or however many i have time to do) different types of teenagers, eg. geek, chav, goth and i want to photograph them in the opposite location to where you assume they would be.  For example i will photograph a chav in a stately home.  i want to spend a week on each type so that i can try a few different things with each one.  I want a variety of shots as well so i will do some wide shots but some close up tight shots with just bits of detail of the type of person and where they are, eg. a barbie girl holding physics books.  

"The images are slightly disturbing, but not enough to make us angry because they are so seductive"

DOY, G., 2005. Picturing the Self: Changing Views of the Subject in Visual Culture.  London: I.B. Tauris & Company. p. 100

Self Portraits:

To disturb the gaze even more when these pictures are seen as a set i will be doing them as self-portraits.  I will appear in each one as the main subject dressed up as a different stereotype in each.  I think this will make the project more interesting.  It can represent the fact that you can judge someone by what they look like but you don't know what they are actually like.  If people who didn't know me saw me dressed as a chav or a goth they would, quite rightly, automatically assume that's who i was.  Seeing me, the same person, featuring in all the portraits dressed as all these different types of people could also represent the multiple personalities people, especially teenagers, have depending on who they are with, where they are and what they're doing.