What makes Miss Aniela so spectacular you ask? She only takes self portraits. Though viewed by some as being too provocative, Miss Aniela proves that a little lighting, a great concept and the use of cloning can make any self portrait genius.
How did you come up with the alter ego Miss Aniela?
Aniela is my middle name, so whilst I remain true to my named identity by using it, it also serves as a protected 'alter ego'. It is unusual too, being a Polish version of 'Angela', and I like foregrounding my Polish roots. The 'Miss' came from a desire to represent myself as a single and independent woman, but also with that touch of femininity and youth, as opposed to using 'Ms'. I thought of the whole name quite quickly and it stuck! I never envisioned it being my artist's name; I just made it up when I set up my Flickr account.
What would you say to someone that called you Narcissistic?
My normal response is to scorn them, as there are lots of artists using themselves as models in their artwork, for plenty of reasons. Lack of models is the most basic reason, but self portraiture can be an autobiographical act too. However, after thinking more upon the topic, I realize I may be 'narcissistic' insofar as I enjoy my own image; I enjoy scrutinizing it in the mirror, capturing it on camera and generally manipulating and fictionalizing it. But narcissism is not the same thing as arrogance, as I never claim to love myself or the way I look! Self portraiture can actually be more about insecurity than pride. The act of self portraiture then becomes a way of 'fixing' an ideal image of oneself, using all the tricks of photographic angles, light and color, and manipulation in post-processing.
How do you feel about people comparing your photography to porn?
The number of times the discussion has been brought up hides the obvious fact that my work is not porn, because it cannot be defined as such. It does not show a sexual act of any kind! However, when I use nudity in my pictures, that's when people start to accuse my work of taking on a soft-porn element. I find that some people cannot distinguish between the latter and erotica. I do use erotic tones in my self portraiture, but always from my point of view, that is, a woman's point of view.
Most female self-portrait artists who use their body in their artwork and who share their work with a wide audience will inevitably encounter accusations from certain viewers, who, confined to the thinking within the phraseology of 'tits and ass', do not see beyond male representations of the female body as they have become accustomed to it in men's magazines and porn. Cynical of what they dub as simply another effort to capitalize on the parts of women's bodies that in Western society have become to represent sexuality itself: breasts, legs and bottoms, they leer at the woman's body and jeer at possibility of my images being 'art'.
What do you want people to see when they look at your photos?
As I started to explain in the above answer, I want to satirize and defeat the idea of the woman's body being compartmentalized, literally into 'tits and ass', becoming not so much a body of natural, human function equal to man's, but unfairly singled out and fetishised in porn and advertising in a way that man's body is not. I do not want necessarily to be judged on the prettiness of my outer self. I want to be praised for my skill in capturing myself. I want my viewers to remember I am a breathing, thinking, creating woman - not a doll, 'with boobs and a camera', whose photography effortlessly records her female form.
I love it when people look at my pictures and are impressed or inspired by the use of light, angle and composition; and are moved by the image in its entirety, not singly by the nude body which may appear, but the whole art piece. I don't mind people interpreting my images as erotic, because that's there intentionally, I am not innocent, I am aware of what I am doing. What I don't like is when certain males, sexist to other men, say things like 'Oh dear, I'm looking at the wrong things in this image, that's because I'm male'. Well I am female, I took the picture, and I am looking at my breast too. The aspects of nudity are certainly not exclusively for the male eye, and they're not 'wrong', they're intentional. And our nude selves are natural - because as well as dealing with the specific issue of female images in art, and the way in which the viewer's look is traditionalized as a voyeuristic, male gaze, artists like myself also want to strip the stigma from generic nudity itself, and question the taboos of flesh and sexuality by presenting our own naked selves, unashamedly and knowingly, in our work.
Stay tuned for Part 2 of my interview with Miss Aniela.....
