Modern Candor, by Lenae Day

My next ENG 202 adventure is the creation of Lenae Day, graduate of Western Washington University and rogue photographer. (Alright, the rogue part may be a slight exaggeration.) Her piece's full title is Modern Candor: The Magazine Women Believe In. In format it's a magazine complete with recreations of early 1960s ads picturing multiple incarnations of the artist herself. The ads are accompanied not by articles, but by autobiographical anecdotes. If I am not very much mistaken, this piece was made to accompany a gallery show she put on of her work.

The visuals in the magazine are stunning - I am very excited to have her come to class tomorrow. Hopefully she will be willing to discuss her process in more detail.

It's also a very intriguing piece content-wise. I think it has a lot to say about the practice of creating oneself through one's appearance, and also creating the people and world around oneself through appearance and stereotyping. This especially intrigued me. Her writing is thoughtful and has a certain power in its honesty, which is quite the juxtaposition with the ads in retrospect. By the very nature of advertisements, there's a kind of manufactured feel, a certain quality that lends itself to an un-reality, and yet her writing asserts 'look again: this is real.'

An impressive piece. Keep your eyes open: I think Ms. Day will go far.