Metamorphosis by Ashlee Pham
Polaroid self-portraiture by Ashlee Pham, Metamorphosis is an exploration of her emotional journey through self-portrait, simple props, and botanical arrangements. Each represents a modal shift in her state of mind as she navigates loss and the stages of depression.
Artist statement
Created over two years during the most challenging period of my life, this body of work was both an escape and a deep dive into emotions I was yet to become aware of. During lockdown, my bedroom was a safe haven, a place to explore and give form to my inner world. A side table, a bedsheet, a curtain seen through the camera lens was all the magic I needed to escape for even a moment.
During this time I had begun to detach from the only person that has ever really known me, my life partner, my husband. Had you asked me then how I was I could never find the words, I kept my feelings in a box, lid tightly shut and tied with a bow. Through this process howeer, I can no longer stay hidden as the reality is burnt on film for all to see, including me.
About the artist
Ashle Pham is a self-taught photoraphy of Vietnamese origin currently based in Sydney, Australia. Her practice is inhabited by the feminine protagonists of an intimate and melancholic world. The imagery strives to exist beyond age, body, type ethnicity or other social norms to form an aesthetic language that excludes no one.
Her recent work has explored self-portraiture using analog methodologies and in-camera effects that speak to emotional upheaval , exploration and transformation.
