I photographed the “twins” in a variety of different environments, some locations include: a dense forest, the shore of a lake, sunny fields, dirt roads, in the harsh winter snow, inside abandoned buildings, my apartment, and the room I grew up in back home. The environments, costuming, and expressions of the “twins” all become essential to portraying aspects of their relationship and personality traits. The “twins” play out fictional scenes based upon personal aspects of my life that are heavily influenced by my past as an only child, but also seek to portray a fantasized future with a metaphoric, non-existent twin sister.

With these images I hope to balance a range of possibilities, from romantic and fantastical, restrained and direct, to being dense with visual complexity. The figures tend to be strikingly allegorical and dramatic, being the constant focus of the image, yet they are developed with an eye for their surroundings. The colors are vivid and the lighting tends to waver somewhere between being natural and artificial. The compositions are deliberate and often produces a scene that appears rigidly staged. To counteract the staged quality of the compositions, the figure’s comfort with the camera lens gives brings forth an overall sense of ease and naturalness to the images. In an attempt to create a completely realistic scene, the “twins” are photoshopped very carefully into their surroundings, shadows are added, and layers become overlapped or hidden. Playing with the idea of a fictional existence, the “twins” confront the viewer and ask for a confirmation of their presence in each photograph, but more importantly, they ask for a confirmation of their own existence- leaving only the viewer to decide their fate.

Kaela Speicher Photography

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Here is the trailer for the movie Far From Heaven:

“I got them done locally here in LA, specifically at a printer in Van Nuys called Opus Editions – the man who prints there has been a lifeline for me, very ready to help me and give advice and whatnot..in fact I just spent an hour talking with him today. Anywho, my prints are giclee canvas prints – giclee refers to the style of ink-jet printing and it has archival qualities. They are stretched over 2-inch stretcher boards and range in size between 20X20 inches and 40X40 inches. I chose to print on canvas because I want my photos to blur the lines between photography and painting, and the canvas really helps to do that. However, I have certain images that I would never want to print on canvas, and for that my printer does giclee on fine art matte paper.”

It was really great to get a response and better understand how she prints her photographs. Printed on canvas was always something I have wanted to try with my photography, and now I think I finally got that extra push to do it, so thanks Brooke! I also found out that Brooke graduated from the Film and English programs under the Temple University main campus, which hits close to home because I went to Tyler School of Art (Temple University) for my freshman year of art school.

This is a video interview of Brooke Shaden talking about her photography:

Here are a few of Brooke Shaden’s photographs:

I’ve got a reputation of having very narrative content in my pictures, but I don’t really see my pictures as being any more narrative than anyone elses. In fact, I don’t feel that pictures are very narrative. All they do is suggest what it might be like to experience a narrative, they don’t really create one because they don’t have the ability. A narrative has to go in time, pictures can never do that. So what’s beautiful about them is that you feel like you might be in the presence of some kind of narrative, but you aren’t.

Here are some of Crista Parravani’s photographs from her series “Kindred”:

This is Crista Parravani’s artist statement from “Kindred”:

This series of images was made with my identical twin sister Cara, beginning in the winter of 2003 and continuing through 2004. The landscapes become the medium for the telling of our fractured relationship. The two of us play out a drama that is both personal and familial, where identity is changeable, where past and present merge. Childhood, narcissism, sexual confusion, and family romance: these are all things that keep us tied to our singular path, and keep us longing for separate lives.

The images are intended to be painterly, lush and sexual, broken and tangled. They are the only true means to describe the union of loathing and love that binds us. We watch through the lens because we ask you to confirm our presence here, and confront you on a level plain, defying the instinct for objectification that is common in the painting of portraits of women in the 18th and 19th Centuries. We confront the viewer also with stark questions, asking who has control of this struggle: the viewer, the photographer, or the subject. In the brutal cold of winter, in the harsh light of summer, I force us back to those woods, and the command I exert is also the manipulation over the relationship I desire. I am the author of these images, but by controlling my other I am controlled in turn. Finally there is no before or after, only a static journey–a fantasy to fill a barren space. We are transformed into creatures of longing and hope.

The first artificially-created human clones date back to the 1860s. Clever photographers, ever on the watch for new ideas to boost business, developed several techniques to duplicate people — causing them to appear twice in the same photograph. “Every Man His Own Twin!” boasted one ad, neatly explaining the appeal of this novelty. These double-exposure images were no passing fad– they were popular for more than three decades.

Special plate-holders and rotating partial lens caps were among the devices used to expose half of the negative at a time. After the first exposure, the subject of the photograph would quickly move into a different position so the second half of the picture could be made.

Of course, real twins of various ages were also photographed in similar studio settings, making it difficult to determine which double portraits are the result of photographic manipulation. One indicator is the presence of a slightly lighter or darker line bisecting the photograph, but sometimes this line is so artfully concealed that the trick goes undetected.

In many cases, the novelty of camera-created cloning was enough to satisfy a studio’s clientele, but there is little of interest to the modern viewer in two awkwardly-posed portraits of the same person shown side-by-side. The images in this exhibition, however, demonstrate that creativity and imagination can elevate a technical innovation beyond the level of gimmickry. It’s an important lesson: even the most innovative digital effects of the 21st century can fall flat if they serve no narrative purpose.

This history is especially interesting to me right now, because in my History of Photography class we are currently learning about this time period up until the early 1900s. Here are some early photographs of the process:

This is a stop motion video that I found on Flickr, made by Chloe Elise. I found it to be refreshingly beautiful yet simple and complex all at the same time. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do