How does our preoccupation with visual perfection relate to our perception of life? Do we crop and filter our experiences and emotions like we do our photographs? Are we losing sight of the less-photogenic, less-blissful narratives in our lives? Light and Weight asks these questions through the character of Sona: a beautiful model from a remote Armenian town. At first we see her beauty: the Light. Overblown images focus on her charm and draw attention to her youthful optimism. But in a second thread of images we follow her elsewhere – out and away into the darker corners of her existence: the Weight. Here we see traces of loss and regret, grief and the burdens of responsibility. We see the story of a young girl in an aching land marked by genocide, war and economic collapse. Do our struggles belong in the gallery of our lives? Or do we embrace the ever-increasing opportunities to reframe and reinvent new dreams and realities?

Studierende: Anjula Schaub
Betreuung: Prof. Henrik Spohler
Seminar: Shift 2018/19

Documentary photos & Concept: Anjula Schaub
Protagonist: Sona Ghazaryan
Modelling photos: Dániel Sziszik, Julia Barseghyan