My Plastic People
My plastic people
Photos and Text by Seigar
November 1, 2018
Artist Statement: My Plastic People
This set of photos is my most personal, serious, and ambitious project so far. As a street and travel photographer, I like finding richness. I don’t try to follow conventional compositions; I just keep loyal to my eye. If I need to break rules to show an image, I just do it. I’ve been able to travel to many cities for my work, and in each I was drawn to the shop windows, and the mannequins inside. They sort of represent the people from the country where they were taken. Their mood, clothes, bodies, or make up would show me the traditions, beliefs, and even values, of the places I was in.
In this selection, we find these beautiful women surrounded by reflections of their cities. The reflections help me make complex photographs, and I’m not afraid of complexity. I feel my plastic people are dignified, human, and ultimately free. They tell me tales and stories about life. They always show me their humanity. Their faces, looks, eyes, clothes, shadows, and reflections—every photo creates a fantasy. With their dream-like stares or challenging poses, the ladies in the photos exude emotion: confidence, arrogance, sadness. I feel the need to make them talk to the world. They all have a message to say. My camera is just the way they have to speak, working as a channel.
My Plastic People have become an essential part of my street photography. To me, they are portraits of our modern society, analogous with human nature. It’s so inspiring when I get to a new city, town or a village; and I go around walking, looking for them, the reflections, the saturated colors, the buildings and architecture behind them, the lights and shadows. I owe them the world.
Seigar
Biography:
Seigar is an English philologist, high school teacher, and urban street photographer. A fetishist for reflections, saturated colors, details, and religious icons, he is hugely inspired by his travels. His photos are more than mere postcards, they are conceptual story lines, captured moments given a new frame and perspective.
He has participated in several exhibitions, and his works have been featured in multiple international publications. His most ambitious projects to date are Plastic People, a study on anthropology and sociology that focuses on the humanization of the mannequins he finds in the shop windows all over the world; Response to Ceal Floyer for the Summer Exhibition, a conceptual work that understands art as a form of communication; and Tales of a City, an ongoing photo-narrative project taken in London. In his coverage of public events, he demonstrates and emphasizes social documentary photography and pop culture. He writes for The Cultural Magazine (Spain) about photography and for Memoir Mixtapes about music (L.A.). He has collaborated with VICE Spain, WAG1 Magazine, and his works have been featured in Vogue, Italy.