#foreveralone -for all those not familiar with social media: it is a hash tag, a tag that shall make it easier to find a topic or word, here „forever alone“. Sharing something like that on social media can be counted as critic to all those virtual friends. You „collect“ people around you, have followers and friends, but in the end you are alone. The subtitle of this series of photographs is „5 TOPICS OF SOLITUDE PHOTOGRAPHED BY FOOKSHIT“. Solitude. It is a collection of loose photo prints in app. 13x18cm.
This collection was made by FOOKSHIT a photographer from the Philippines born in 1982.
#toomuchtooyoung
On the first of five photos of the series we see a tangle of turquoise wool laying on the ground. The thread is held up by someone of whom we only see the legs and shoes. The tangle almost has the color of some plants you can see, but only almost. You can directly see that it is not belonging there, that it is artificial.
The second photo shows the same thread, but this time partially around he head of a good looking young man with well trained arms wearing a white t-shirt. In the background we see a wooden pylon. The tangle is in the hands of the guy, who is busy working with it. He is continuing playing with it and on the third photo we see him from behind, arms raised in a dance like position. I really like this photo. it is very strong. He somehow becomes part of the surrounding nature.
Photo four shows the portrait of the young man with the thread around his head. The result of his performance. We can only see one eye and that is focussing us. He has this strong expression, also a bit angry and sexy. The last photo is that boy taking his construction off.
Maybe it is time to talk about sexuality?! Because the homosexuality of FOOKSHIT has deep influence in his work. What I see in #toomuchtooyoung is the attempt of keeping a too young boy, that hasn’t had his coming out in a relationship – but under political and social circumstances it is impossible. So FOOKSHIT lets his love tie himself up in front of the camera – only to loose him in the end. He is freeing himself and not committing into this relationship.
#iloveyou is now FOOKSHIT being active again. He has got the control back, because in this series we see him destroying the symbol of love – a red rose. He is pouring blue water on it. The first four photos show the act itself, we see a hand and a watering can, where the colored water comes out and leaves a mess. The result, picture five, is a former red rose that now looks black, that reminds of death and tears and that shows so well how much someone can get hurt by loving someone else. A little detail and a sort of trade mark: The analog camera FOOKSHIT is using most of the time is leaving a little imprint on the photos, normally the date they were taken, but the last photo shows „<3 I LOVE YOU <3“
I had to think of the wonderful album of Camille: „Ilo Veyou„. Interestingly she added videos to that album, a sort performances and one contains a thread added to her hair. So we are also at #toomuchtooyoung
The next part, #fadetogrey, contains again five photos. if you have just a quick look, you see four photos of the sky becoming more grey and as last photo a picture of the same man we know from #toomuchtooyoung, this time with a transperent umbrella, but as it is shot against the light, we cannot see his face. So starting with the end, it is the memory and pain fading to grey, going away. You felt so much, all this love, all this pain, but after a while, after not seeing each other, those moments of pain become less and less and even your inner picture of your loved one fades, as we can see here in the last photograph.
The first four photos all contain little details, that make them special, next to the different shades they have. The first photo shows five birds on wires. The sky has dramatic clouds. Photo two has one huge white cloud and again wires. But looking carefully we can see an airplane almost in the centre of the photograph. Does it resemble the wish of going away? And again wired on picture three, but this time this artificial lines have natural partners: a tree reaching out to them. Almost all leaves are gone and who does not think of „Autmn Leaves“ seeing this photograph?
Picture four of five shows this beautiful dramatic sky. Dark clouds breaking open leaving the sun to glimpse. But is it a skyline we look at or the sea with boats? Anyways, it is a greyish photo, so we are on the way of fading, on the road of forgetting.
„Nachts sind alle Katzen grau“ (At night all cats are grey) we say in Germany and that is the bridge to series four: #lostandnotfound
We see five photos taken at night with a flash. Photos one, three and five show a cat and its reflecting eyes in the dark images. Photo two shows tree tops and photo four the ground. After fading to grey we now arrived in the dark. All is black and we cannot see – only if we use a flash or a lamp. We are ready to enter the end, the last phase, the last series:
#toforget
We are now all ready to forget, to forget what love made to us, to forget what we’ve been through, to forget, to make space for something new. And that is what we see in the last set of five. Photo one shows a young man on a bed looking into the camera.On the second photograph he is laying on his back and looking in the direction of a window that we see in the back. Picture three lets him act – he is lifting the curtains a bit, to see out of the window. What he sees is shown on picture four. He sees the wires, I assume the ones we already know from #fadetogrey. And picture five? THe last photograph in the entire collection? We see that the bed is empty now. He left and the curtain is a bit open, so we can see that the sun is shining. We still see the imprints of someone being on the bed, but now there is no one left in the image. THe figure is gone. The person is free, free to move out into the world, free and open to find a new love. Or did he resign? Did he give up on finding someone, as the title of the collection implies? Will he be forever alone?
„[…] for i am #foreveralone eversince“ – I know too well what that means.
One more question is rising, regarding the number five. We have five series of five photos (plus the title of each series, a cover and the text in the end). 25 – is that his age? Is it the philippines version of a five, which means „ha“, so is he laughing at us? What is his meaning of the number five?
Here you can have a virtual look through the book
You can see more of FOOKSHIT on his site.
I had to think of the new portrait series „is still searching“ by WassinkLundgren, the photographs of Juergen Teller, an exhibition I saw of Jan Hoek and, in the female version, the photo series of Anna Sasse.
The good news: there are more photo books!