Liz is a fine art photographer from Connecticut. She lives and works between Connecticut, New York City & Philadelphia. After studying at Pratt Institute, Liz received her BFA from the University of Hartford in 2012. Her work has been featured on PDN, CNN, Huffington Post, Juxtapoz and Der Greif among others. Her photography has been exhibited widely and is in several public & private collections. Liz received the Onward Compé photography award curated by Elinor Carucci in 2015. She has given lectures and artist talks at the University of Connecticut, The Connecticut Women’s Historical Society and the Onward Compé photo festival. Liz also works as a freelance photographer on commissioned assignments. Her editorial work has been published at UPPERCASE, The Hartford Business Journal & AARP amongst others. She has also worked for advertising clients such as American Express. Today we share her series, Moments of Being.
Moments of Being
Moments of Being is a photographic exploration of how American fantasies regarding femininity shape gender identity and relationships of those Liz Calvi is closest to. Influenced by Naomi Wolf’s idea of The Beauty Myth, she photographs her family and friends in order to question the societal norms imposed on women by mass media. Calvi is interested in the way photographs can pull from the subconscious and illuminate the point where dreams coincide with reality. The magic in photography resides here for her; where dreams and reality coexist in the photograph. The act of photographing is Calvi’s chance to examine our physical reality while exploring the human psyche and the metaphysical world.
Calvi combines a diaristic documentation with more staged pictures; a technique that allows her to capture both the public and private personas of her subjects. The staged pictures are a collaboration; a place where her subjects can freely represent themselves within a dreamlike narrative. This fusion of the psychological fantasies Calvi’s subjects co-create with her exposes the tensions and subtle links between our bodies and minds. Calvi wants the pictures to question fantasies of femininity and offer a counter- narrative to societal norms. Above all, she wants this project to evoke a truth about her subject’s psyche and the collective psyche our culture holds regarding gender identity.
To view more of Liz’s work please visit her website.