I have been trying on and documenting shoes that have been and/or will again be worn by other people.
I was recently informed that women of a certain age and body type are just not physically desirable. (mine) Because of this fact we should just accept our new role and save other's from having to suffer through our selfies.... and our bodies.
My reaction was to start creating a two part related body of work looking at the expectations of aging and roles.
One part is based on a folk saying that hung beside my grandmother's kitchen table "don't' judge a person until you've walked a mile in their moccasins" I want to see if a shoes' history could help me better understand this persons point of view by "walk a mile" in other's shoes. To explore this ideas I've been photographing myself wearing used shoes on site in second had shops with whatever is there. I figured the length of my foot x 2 to get the number of shoes I have to wear and photograph to reach a "mile."
6,670 shoes or 3,335 pairs
The other part is simply selfies including nude studies exploring what my "new role" could be as a widowed woman of a certain age. It contains a variety of images from sexy to grandmotherly... if there is a distinction there.
At this both studies are intertwined and are still in a digital form. I image them printed and displayed in relatively small printed forms to bring the viewer into an intimate distance with an older woman. Which maybe they have never experienced before