DaguerreotypeAcrylic Paint on Canvas How does something we often take for granted change over time? How do we ourselves change over time? I wanted to explore this by superimposing my present self onto an early photograph (aka. the daguerreotype) portrait. While photos now are digitized, snapped, shared, and easily forgotten in piles of 'Recently Deleted', posing for photographs back then were serious and proper occasions. I took inspiration from old black and white daguerreotypes: the painted backdrop and antique furniture details are all taken from Chinese photograph portraits. A portrait in all its tempered scenery. However, my 2026 self differs from that norm in many ways. While I am wearing cultural qipao wear, it is in a modernized style. My pose also breaks from the past standard; it is not so poised as what the precarious occasion would have demanded. Unlike a true daguerreotype, I display the full array of roygbiv digitized color. Time frame aside, it still remains a photographic portrait: a reflection of ourselves that we regularly take for granted. Exploring them has made me more aware of how even our familiar constants will eventually evolve, just like us. |