Projecting Skin Deep - STEVEN R. TABOR

Projecting Skin Deep

How deep does skin go?

This series makes use of projection photography---a technique that originated in the 1960s with the work of John French, in which photographic images were projected onto a model. This series projects second skins onto a model using a mini-beamer.

The series originated with a request to the model Maya. I asked her what she would like to have projected onto her. Her reply was animal skins and mushrooms. The first part of her response surprised me since she is an avid vegan. But it also make me think.

So much anguish has been, and continues to be, caused by skin color. The world would surely be a better place if we could all swap skins in a photographic instant.

For this series, an assortment of photographic skins were projected onto the model Maya. As she had requested, this included images of animal skins and wild mushrooms. Vintage pinups were also included, to represent the skin from days gone by. An image of the late musician Justin Townes Earle was also included as a second skin because it was his musical legacy that nurtured me while this series was being created.

Skins don't necessarily need to be of animal or vegetable origin. Text samples drawn from the work of the performance artist Nora Turato are also included as a second skin. Turato derives her texts from the internet. These are included to represent the digital skin that many of us are inadvertently inundated with. Finally, images from the conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas were included. Thomas's work is on themes related to identity, history, and popular culture. Several of his images have been sampled and re-mixed to add a contemporary, historical dimension to the projected skins.

If you'd like to see the full series, download the PDF catalogue here.