Yahoo News Hereford teenagers need to 'make friends with their faces'
THE camera never lies. Except that these days, it often does.
AI and digital manipulation is everywhere, and it’s making us all feel pretty uneasy and mistrusting. Also, after years of Zoom, Facetime, Snapchat and TikToks, we’ve raised a generation who have spent their lives on screen and they’re pretty fed up of it.
Most teenagers will now cover their faces when a camera comes out, only comfortable to be snapped if their hands are covering their faces, or their social media app has added cat-ears, digital make-up or AI filters.
These ‘fun’ features cover up the deeper fears of young people, who are acutely aware of their faces being stored in databases across the world, and the threat of disgusting deep-fakes and cyber-bullying.
We were recently given the chance to reclaim our faces by the Cultivate exhibition at the Courtyard. Under the guidance of local artists Dermot Clarke (@dermotclarke) and Lucy Davies, we took photos of ourselves (#nofilter), traced our essential features, and then screen-printed the resulting impressions onto T-shirts.
We took to the streets to model our designs around town, and used a digital SLR and instant-print camera to present ourselves in a way we are proud of.
We were inspired by the way old-school fashion designers and models overcame their insecurities and enjoyed presenting themselves, without the need for social media or Photoshop.
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Cultivate helped us to explore our identity and express ourselves through photography that wasn’t filtered, and use practical art skills that took care, skill, and human intelligence.
We’ve learned some techniques, but we’ve also made friends with our faces and learned to hold our heads a bit higher.
Self-esteem has to go further that just skin-deep, and art teaches us about empathy, expression and emotional articulation, in an intensely personal way.
You can see the Cultivate exhibition at the Courtyard and the Old Mayor’s Parlour over the summer. It’s not available online.
BEN LEA
MANAGER, CLOSE HOUSE PROJECT
