CHATROOM PORTRAITS (2002)
Chatroom Portraits is a series of photographs taken from so-called “unmonitored chatrooms” on the internet during 2002. In some of these sites, user communication is through chat, real-time e-mail, speech and webcams, which means the user is filmed by a separate camera connected to the computer (live video), all of which mostly takes place in the user’s private homes. I take photos by downloading and saving extracts from these live videos and turn them into monumental portraits.
The series examines the borders between the private and the public with emphasis on questions concerning the Internet as a phenomenon in our society and the virtual cultures which have arisen through the Internet. Active participation in chatrooms with camera-surveillance may be an addictive process and for many serves as a substitute for a “real” social life. The focus thus being on a problem of our time; being protected from a social sphere.
In my view, this kind of photography is street photography in cyberspace. The images can be compared to photos taken of people in the streets, with the one – and important – distinction that these pictures are taken in the virtual space. This has forced the development of new criteria for the process of photography in parallel with new forms of social interaction between people. Despite physical distance, the motifs are as real as any other photographic material.
The Internet cancelling out geographical distance is a fascinating fact I examine in this series, a fact which is also present in other completed and future series. The people in the photographs live in various places around the world and thus time is side-lined in the sense that I can take night-photos in the middle of the day due to the geographical distance; being present somewhere without actually being there is a very interesting concept. The motifs are private individuals photographed in a public setting; the actual publication makes them public material. It is worth noting that these photos represent the people as they themselves want to appear, and that the motifs are photographed with their own camera set-ups. The titles are chosen from their own names (chat-names/identity), such as cazman, platrampage, leanerd. Note that the depicted person may not be the one responsible for name, camera angle and picture quality. In some cases the computer is also used by another person, i.e. a spouse. Thus this might be the person we see, not the actual owner. All pictures are inkjet on canvas, on canvas stretcher. The size being 61x81 cm/ 90x140 cm.
Alle bildene er printet med Epson CF blekk på lerret, spent på blindramme og er 61x81/90x140 Cm.
