Grace Drum / Self Portrait

My work combines photography and installation to investigate themes of identity and fragmentation while challenging what a photograph can become. I use Photography and Photo-sculpture to push the boundaries of how photographs can exist in the world. Focusing on process based work and what I can do with a photo once taken. I explore identity through self portraiture, fragmentation, memory, nostalgia, femininity, and the materiality of a photograph.

Using both Digital photography and Film photography I create photographs and explore how they can exist in the world rather as prints, photo-sculptures, installations, etc. My Photo-sculpture work focuses on fragmentation, dissection, deconstruction, and reconstruction. Focusing on process, I find that the exploration of Identity comes through the fragmentation of my face and body. I use large scale photographs and fragment and pin them to create a finished piece that can challenge my previous ideas about identity through the creation process. I work both with film and digital based practices to investigate the material quality of photography. My film photography work is more focused on the slow and thoughtful process of shooting and developing film and thinking about how I can use this medium to transcend traditional presentations of film photography. A thread throughout all of my recent work is process, within shooting, printing, and creating something new.

I’m interested in how my ideas can change through the process of creating. In my recent work I have been thinking about fragmentation and identity through constructing an image and then deconstructing and reconstructing. Pushing the photo past just simply printing and attempting to create meditative processes throughout my practice, helps me to challenge what a photograph can become and how it can exist in the world. I utilize photography to help me investigate process and observe my fluctuating thoughts on the world, myself, and my practice.

gracedrumphoto.com

@gracedrumphoto