Over the course of a prom photoshoot, Seen Her Prom exposes a range of emotions following the first anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic & the realization of vaccination.
OUTTAKE01 (#1), 2021
Forward shot (#2), 2021
The arm's dressing (#3), 2021
Dance practice (#4), 2021
Popular media representation labels prom as a threshold between childhood and adulthood; between innocence and maturity; and between high school & life after. It is inherently public, involving a group of friends, a coveted date, or those on the outside taking pictures, yet also individual in opinion and experience.
Prom is also dictated as a fundamental mark to check off before graduation, as our forebearers did. In this season of vaccination, over a year since the virus first plagued our lives, what lies on the other side of this threshold? We are progressing from pandemic to…what, exactly?
Bowing (#5), 2021
Smile! (#6), 2021
The corsage (#7), 2021
Regality (#8), 2021
Reality (#9), 2021
OUTTAKE02 (#10), 2021
OUTTAKE03 (#11), 2021
Seen Her Prom personifies a dawn of emotional processing. It was photographed the day after my second COVID-19 vaccine dose, wearing my old prom dress, in my unpolished studio space I inhabited while experiencing quarantine. It is simultaneously candid, inviting viewers to accept vulnerability, and also manufactured, signaled in the first shot & final two shots.
The dichotomy between candid and manufactured imagery mirrors many of the contrasting pandemic feelings: hope and despair, optimism and fear, contentment and anger, harmony and chaos, and so on. As the world inevitably rejoices at the new life ahead and loathes the life we have been living, still we can recognize the significance of transition.