Faces of Second Life

Last April, on my way back to California, I stopped at the Atlanta Airport. On the walls of one of the terminals, I saw a collection of photographs of people’s faces. The photos were on a black background behind a glass wall. The exhibit was probably two meters high and extended probably seven meters in width, may be more – I don’t remember very well. There were no high contrasts between the faces; there was a smooth flow of skin tones and hair colors. If I remember correctly there were light blond, strawberry blond, light brown, dark brown, and black. The photos were organized in columns of three (or may be four; I should have taken a picture). I was impressed with the exhibit, and decided that I would do the same, but with Second Life faces.

When I started this work, I first asked my friends, but my list is not that long. The nice thing is that some of my friends asked their friends, and their friends asked other friends. At one point, I even had expectators at my studio; it was a lot of fun. I am not nearly done with the pictures; I would like to reach 100 avatar faces, but here are some of the photos that I have taken so far. When I have reached my goal of 100 avatars I hope to present a wall-to-wall exhibit of all the faces.

I almost forgot to mention that the pictures are placed in alphabetical order, but because I can’t wait until I have 100 to start the composition I decided the do them in batches, which means each batch is in alphabetical order.

FOSL Batch 01: Alexx Markova, Ambi Bimbogami, Bunny Brickworks, CT Xue, Darvius Axelrad, and Jessikiti Nikitin

FOSL Batch 02: Amparia Ecksol, DC Hogfather, Elora Lungu, FluffyHannahWoo Avro, Frickre Fraker, and Imso Obscure

The Unclothed Exhbit

The idea for this exhibit sparked from comments I often heard about nudity in Second Life. As a photographer, I always ask people if they would mind posing naked for me, and when doing so I have noticed that there is some shyness about nudity. When I examined my own Second Life, I realized that I have posed naked for only two photographers; I also noticed that I do mind having my avatar photographed naked.

This exhibit is an exploration of my own Second Life nudity. Through the making of it I experienced mixed feelings, and in every picture I questioned how to present my second self. My avatar is just a collection of pixels, but because I have created a persona with her, my real self feels responsible for her Second Life image.

During the creation of this exhibit I asked myself to answer three key questions: one, why do I want to do this exhibit? Two, how do I present my avatar naked in a way that she looks artistic, sensual, even erotic without being pornographic? And three, what story do I want to tell?

I wanted to present my avatar nude, to help me – in a way - deal with some of my own taboos about nudity in Second Life. I also think that if someone is going to photograph my avatar nude – the way is done in this exhibit - that would be no other than me.

After about 3 weeks of work, shooting and re-shooting, I feel that the photos I produced present my avatar as I wanted her to be - artistic, sensual, and erotic without being pornographic. It is the first time I go back and forth on the same picture just to make minor adjustments on the pose, the angle, the light, simply to cover a private part that may have been too exposed.

I felt I had to tell a story, simply because my mind works in such a way that even when I’m playing I have to organize things (my thoughts), so they make sense to me and those who see them. I also wanted to tell a story (not necessary my story) because the subject of nudity, my own nudity that is, is a bit embarrassing for me, so I wanted the audience to be able to walk through the exhibit on their own and makeup their thoughts without having me explaining why I came up with that picture, or what it means to me. As my good friend Gina said, this story “can be very well seen as a universal story.”

The Unclothed exhibit will be open from December 6, 2008 to January 6, 2009.




Set up
I have a thing with black. I generally use black background; this case had to especially be black, so I could better isolate the subject.

Poses
Learning – by Alexx Markova from Body Reactions
Waiting – by Alexx Markova from Body Reactions
Living – by Seikatsu Koba
Losing – by Alexx Markova from Body Reactions
Exploring – by Seikatsu Koba
Breaking – by Alexx Markova from Body Reactions
Rebuilding – by Seikatsu Koba
Unwinding – stock
Nostalgia – by Seikatsu Koba

I would like to thank the following individuals for providing their insight in the subject of Second Life nudity, insight which help in great extent to shape this exhibit:

Asthenia Pinazzo
Bevan Whitfield
Bunny Brickworks
CodeBastard Redgrave (Codie)
CT Xue
Dolly Voom
Dyami Jameson
GoSpeed Racer
Haizo Baum
Jerremy Darwin
Jessyka Richard
Klent H
Lacie Babenco
Laleeta Xue
Laura Leandros
Lilya Shilova
Marsellus Darkstone
Michael Cela
Nightflower
Nika Dreamscape
Nimil Blackflag
Nuuna Nitely
Paypabak Writer
Vint Falken
Winter Jefferson

I also would like to thank Nate Ninetails for proving poses from the *RB* Group, several of which where used in the creation of this collection.

Special thanks to Marc SanDiego (Flickr name), for many of his real life photos inspired this collection, for his feedback, and his encouragement.