As we now have moved to online working and lectures, many of us needed some inspiration to spark our creativity. Today we were lucky enough to have David Brandon Geeting a photographer based in New York who shoots in a democratic fashion, finding equal potential in both the mundane and the exclusive. He’s been extremely creative during quarantine with his other half creating a great body of work called ‘Self Quarantine Residency’. In all his career he has never created self portraits, however he was just having fun with it being creative. During the talk he explained for this project he worked loosely, just shooting with whatever and figures out the meaning afterwards. He wanted to just make things, throwing anything together which ended up making very interesting compositions. David also stated that he is interested in the potential, using his own strobe lighting and set up.
“I like when my work is sometimes confusing, how things change depending on what they’re paired with” – David Geeting
Geeting has channelled this feeling into what he’s calling a “self-quarantine residency,” which he’s embarked on with his collaborator (and girlfriend) Lina. For every day of their joint quarantine so far, they’ve shared a set of photographs that they’ve created solely in their apartment. Their compositions include purple geodes displayed on fruit-printed blankets, smiley-faced potatoes, dirty white socks draped over bags of apples, and portraits of Lina in a pair of overalls and playfully upturned Pippy Longstocking braids. While Geeting has found quarantine accelerating his sense of creativity, he is constantly thinking about the world outside his makeshift residency. “There’s solace in just having time to think, time to breathe, time to embrace tranquility in an otherwise dark moment. I’ve had people reach out to thank me for providing entertainment and a different kind of programming to tune into at this time. That stuff is touching for me to hear because it’s hard to feel helpful in any way when you’re locked inside,” Geeting said.
Above is some of David’s fabulous self portraits, with the help of the styling from his girlfriend Lina each image almost looks like a different person. He used what he had available and managed to create a great body of work, it inspired not only myself but many others too who felt like we are now limited with barely any facilities. It was a brilliant, engaging talk and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
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