Elizabeth Sobieski
by Elizabeth Sobieski a.k.a. The Masked Hatter from New York City
The Treachery of Images.
I have never been a fan of shooting selfies: I don’t even possess a selfie stick. I normally prefer to photograph animals and plants to taking pictures of people. But after more than fifty days of not emerging from my New York City apartment during the height of the pandemic, when I did appear, most gingerly, my eyes, nose, and mouth were hidden behind various newly purchased masks and dark glasses long secreted in a drawer, and my head, like always, was topped with a hat from my extensive collection. I no longer exhibited human features, and I found this invisible woman of style a sudden source of intrigue and I was compelled to photograph this wearer of coronavirus chic: The Masked Hatter. “Co-exist, Co-resist.” These words are simple yet powerful. We must open our eyes to the pain and suffering of those around us. At the end of May, blocks of West End Avenue were closed to traffic, providing walkers, runners and bikers safe distancing space from COVID19. But on June 2, due to the rampaging of New York in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd, all denizens of the city had a curfew at 8. I hadn’t been constrained by a curfew since high school and I shot this selfie just before 8 in front of signs posted besides the always humanitarian Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew. But an hour past curfew, the darkening street beneath my window was suddenly flooded with protesters in support of Black Lives Matter. They were peaceful, yes, but was their proximity deadly? Were they spreading the coronavirus? Their presence seemed surreal. Then again, the world has seemed surreal for the last three and a half years, and even more surreal during the present pandemic. This lightweight straw hat, a salute to Rene Magritte, was long ago discovered at a street fair on the Upper East Side, designed and hand painted by the Dilakian Brothers. I do recall that Magritte’s mother was a milliner. "Ceci n’est pas un chapeau." This is not a hat; it’s merely my image of myself wearing a hat and a mask.
SELF-PORTRAITS: PHOTOGRAPHERS IN CONFINEMENT
Curated by Svetlana Bachevanova
A collection of self-portraits made by photojournalists from five continents during the unprecedent lockdown due to the corona virus pandemic.
Photographers are people on the road, living to document the lives of others.
Constrained by the lockdown, many of them had their first experience of being still long enough to begin seeing and understanding small details about who they are, their lifestyles and values, that were overshadowed while they were busy. These self-portraits express their experience.
This is a unique collection of self-portraits from some of the best lenses in photojournalism at an historic moment.
Photographers in Confinement is a project in process and I welcome additional submissions from photojournalists at svetlana@fotoevidence.com
I am looking for potential exhibition partners in the USA and abroad.
Svetlana Bachevanova is a founder and publisher of FotoEvidence, long time photojournalist and curator.
