TIES OF PERCEPTION

• Prize
  Silver in People/Self-Portrait
• Photographer
  Nofar Horovitz

The great need to create these images characterized, to a great extent, my realization of wide-ranging changes that had awakened my own personal awareness. I decided to express in this project my view of humans and their desires, the glass walls that we erect in our way when we are prevented from achieving our dreams and ambitions. Compromising on the mediocre, the norm, the ordinary instead of setting ourselves goals that we perceive as daydreams, with only a rare chance of fulfillment. Relinquishing before it is too late, future aims and dreams, whether in the fields of relationships, career, or actually any aspect of life, on the simple basis that there are few chances that we will achieve them. All this led me to understand the many barriers that we set ourselves, and as such, we are the only ones, and in truth, the first, to sabotage our potential happiness ,giving up before trying in order to fit into the realistic conventions dictated by mainstream society. Developing a wide body of work revolving the use of nude art in a matter that often cause the viewer unease discomfort feeling is a result of completely letting go and releasing environmental effects, and allowing myself to enter into a 100% pure mindfull work progress in which the commitment to describe and convey the message takes place. As a woman in an ongoing process to recover from sexual harassment,I found that breaking free from the physical barriers still leaves the need of coping with the emotional barrier. Because of that, I find this project powerful, binding and honoring its statement. like 2 parallel lines the need for self-fulfillment and self-sabotaging are close but will never meet – they can not exist together and for one of them to take place, the other has to minimize and give up the front seat. Our past afflictions, experiences, and traumas drive our fear to lead our lives, by enabling this behavior structure, we allow our tragedies to stay in control of our lives. Whilst carrying out this work, I learned to understand that we only tie ourselves to our comfort areas, but to a great extent, we have also tied ourselves up with ropes and barriers, without which the reality of the loss of control becomes a bottomless pit. I decided to describe the many situations and emotions deriving from dealing with both physical and emotional barriers, whether if they are caused by current situations or residues of our past, using different types of ropes in a series of self-portraits. Using studio lighting and black and white photography allows me to create a greater emphasis on the situation taking place, and to turn our attention to the tension and lack thereof between the body and rope, twisting forms and the tightening and release of the ropes, whether physical and obvious or implied and suggested in the sub context of the image itself.