Lady Gaga performing Paparazzi - Renée Drexler (task 5)

My inspiration for this exploration is inspired by Katie Stewart’s presentation on Abstract photography.  It seems that all the experimentation in this era of photography uses analog processes. I wanted to see if I could develop a process using digital photography. For the first time in the history of photography, digital technology has allowed for a relentless exchange of images. We all take part in this exchange on some level. Some of us have even become a paparazzi in our own right by obsessively documenting our lives and posting our experiences virtually. This thought instantly brought Lady Gaga to mind. I decided to take pictures of Gaga’s video “Paparazzi” in an attempt to comment or ask whether it makes a difference if I take a picture of her on a screen or in person. It seems impossible to dissect the real person from the Gaga performance. She cannot escape her iconic status, and any moment of her life can become a spectacle. By revisiting the video and documenting it like a paparazzi photographer, I attempt so slow things down by using a slower shutter speed to create blurry and soft imagery which contrast Gaga’s aesthetic. By capturing various frames within one frame, Gaga’s ghostly figure is swallowed up and disappears within a form that represents the aperture of a camera.