 Being a twin sister and navigating childhood as two very similar but also very distinct individuals is something I am interested in sharing with the world. The success in the previous project of a portrait shot of my sister and I made me want to continue this as a series.  Important artists that I researched are Peter Zelewiski and Mary Ellen Mark. They  heavily influenced how I proceed with this project. Zewelski’s series Alike But Not Alike and Mary Ellen Mark ’s Twins (2001-2002) take a social approach by interviewing twins as well as documenting them. 
   The way we were forced to dress as children, always wearing the same clothes up until middle school. It did not give me a sense of individuality as a kid, which I think is crucial when growing up. The process with this shoot will be different from what I have done before because my sister and I will be improvising our poses but maintaining a body language so that we are one.  As kids, Vanesa and I did not want to be together  very often because of the looks and stares we get so this brings us closer to accepting who we are. In addition, body language is also a way of how twins express their feelings. I do not have to speak to Vanesa to know how she is feeling, but by taking a glance of her body language, I can infer it. 
     Personally, the reason I want to create this final project as a series on film is to portray this part of myself visually since I have never done it before in my favorite medium. Recently, I have taken self-portraits and see it as a way of getting comfortable with both sides of the camera. However, it was made to be a collaborative process with my sister, so in a way we are also learning more about each other in terms of our own individual artistic expression. We both first fell in love with analog photography when we took our first darkroom class in highschool. It’s a sentimental memory. Her artistic opinion is important and plays a part in how I view my art. So I shot these images with the first film camera I ever owned, Canon AE-1 and good ol’ Ilford black and white film. 


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valeria moreno

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