Robert Sasarman
Dat Vinh Tran
Robert:
"We have been talking lately about intimacy and how this could be seen and interpreted. In my opinion, nowadays, our private and intimate space is quite hard to maintain because of technology, social media or simply the easy access to information. Back in the days, the access to information was not as simple as today and if people wanted to 'search' for something or someone the only way to do so was by reading a book or a newspaper or accessing available archives. The term of intimacy was not as defined as today and what we describe now as being inappropriate, for them it was just a normality.
I would like to say that in our days, because the access to any kind of information is accessible to almost everyone, the definition of intimacy or privacy it's starting to fall apart. Yes, we still have our own privacy and intimate moments, but only the fact that we use today's technology and the fact that we are traced by our location everywhere we go, it started to make me realize that intimacy is almost on the edge of disappearing. It happens to me more and more often to talk about certain things or brands and the next moment if I am searching something on my mobile phone, the first adds that pop up are about those exact things. This proves that even in our own houses, anything we talk about could be listen or recorded by our gadgets.
Besides this, I think that even photography itself is stealing away moments of intimacy. Every time we capture an image, basically we are freezing a moment in time that will be taken away from us. Especially when taking images of people, their vulnerabilities and emotions are captured by this apparatus whether you are willing or not.
For this image I would like to describe our intimacy from the perspective of a stranger that 'invades' this territory of a private space. Even the fact that we need curtains on our windows so that our neighbor doesn't 'see' what we are doing in our house proves that this topic is delicate for the most of us. I'm a very open person even when it comes to privacy but at the same time, I'm always very careful and aware of people's personal needs and fears and I am always trying not to 'step' in anybody’s private territory especially if I don't know how they could react to it. I've been living for the last two years in my apartment where I didn't have draperies on any window so all my neighbors from across the street could always see everything I was doing in my apartment, which of course didn't bother me because in the end we are all humans and have our own habits and living which should not be judged. Because of this, I was interested of experimenting with the opposite and see how this could be seen from the outside.
For now, this is what I'm aiming for and this would be the last task before the Easter break, but I would like to tell you that I'm really happy for our collaboration so far. I think we got to know a lot of each other, or our families, traditions or simply of our preferences. Being two different persons from a totally different parts of the world, I realized that there is so much to learn from and even just ideas and thoughts that we shared so far made me have a different perspective on certain values."
I would like to say that in our days, because the access to any kind of information is accessible to almost everyone, the definition of intimacy or privacy it's starting to fall apart. Yes, we still have our own privacy and intimate moments, but only the fact that we use today's technology and the fact that we are traced by our location everywhere we go, it started to make me realize that intimacy is almost on the edge of disappearing. It happens to me more and more often to talk about certain things or brands and the next moment if I am searching something on my mobile phone, the first adds that pop up are about those exact things. This proves that even in our own houses, anything we talk about could be listen or recorded by our gadgets.
Besides this, I think that even photography itself is stealing away moments of intimacy. Every time we capture an image, basically we are freezing a moment in time that will be taken away from us. Especially when taking images of people, their vulnerabilities and emotions are captured by this apparatus whether you are willing or not.
For this image I would like to describe our intimacy from the perspective of a stranger that 'invades' this territory of a private space. Even the fact that we need curtains on our windows so that our neighbor doesn't 'see' what we are doing in our house proves that this topic is delicate for the most of us. I'm a very open person even when it comes to privacy but at the same time, I'm always very careful and aware of people's personal needs and fears and I am always trying not to 'step' in anybody’s private territory especially if I don't know how they could react to it. I've been living for the last two years in my apartment where I didn't have draperies on any window so all my neighbors from across the street could always see everything I was doing in my apartment, which of course didn't bother me because in the end we are all humans and have our own habits and living which should not be judged. Because of this, I was interested of experimenting with the opposite and see how this could be seen from the outside.
For now, this is what I'm aiming for and this would be the last task before the Easter break, but I would like to tell you that I'm really happy for our collaboration so far. I think we got to know a lot of each other, or our families, traditions or simply of our preferences. Being two different persons from a totally different parts of the world, I realized that there is so much to learn from and even just ideas and thoughts that we shared so far made me have a different perspective on certain values."
Dat:
"So yes, as I discussed with you since I did the first project in Australia which includes many intimate moments of my friends and also my self, I realise that the intimacy between you and somebody can be seen as a simple action such as when they let you take pictures of them when they are in moments (sad, happy, vulnerable or depression). So for this week, I meet my friends, we hang out, I take pictures of them sometimes I tell them to pose, and sometimes I just let them do their thing. In the end, I show them photographs to see how they react to them. And if they love and let me share the photographs without hesitation, to me, the intimacy is right there! Especially when we are in a time that our identity and information is threatened by technology, people really care about how their photographs are used.
When it comes to intimacy, I like to focus on people gestures and emotion, therefore, for this topic, I tried to look at people's portraits asI have not done this for a while.
Thank you to you as well for anything that you have shared with me, and yes, this is an intimate conversation between you and me even though we have never met. But just through the stories and pictures, there is a connection, my friend !!!"
"So yes, as I discussed with you since I did the first project in Australia which includes many intimate moments of my friends and also my self, I realise that the intimacy between you and somebody can be seen as a simple action such as when they let you take pictures of them when they are in moments (sad, happy, vulnerable or depression). So for this week, I meet my friends, we hang out, I take pictures of them sometimes I tell them to pose, and sometimes I just let them do their thing. In the end, I show them photographs to see how they react to them. And if they love and let me share the photographs without hesitation, to me, the intimacy is right there! Especially when we are in a time that our identity and information is threatened by technology, people really care about how their photographs are used.
When it comes to intimacy, I like to focus on people gestures and emotion, therefore, for this topic, I tried to look at people's portraits asI have not done this for a while.
Thank you to you as well for anything that you have shared with me, and yes, this is an intimate conversation between you and me even though we have never met. But just through the stories and pictures, there is a connection, my friend !!!"