In May of 2023 I shot my first self-portraiture series in quite a long while, which I titled a Fortnight of Pigs. A Fortnight of Pigs is a series of self-portraits documenting the mundane, daily grind of existing with two Ikea Knorrigs. But more so it’s a series about coping with absence, and maybe a little about getting through a creative slump.
Shot on the Fujifilm X100V using available light. The image is both balanced for symmetry in the framing and asymmetry in the subjects.
In May of 2023, my wife took a trip to the UK for 10 days. This is fine, she loves travelling, and she especially loves solo travelling. I wouldn’t ever take this away from her, considering how hard she’s worked to get to the point of being able to do this. I built myself a task list for the 10 days she’d be away, and set away digging an herb garden, buying parts for kitchen shelving, meeting with friends, and doing a lot of cooking. But her absence was felt as a knot in my stomach. It’s the lack of routine, the lack of easy company. I’m generally fine on my own, however routine disruption can creep in as anxiety, and I know I was feeling it here. I decided to channel those feelings into a creative outlet, and mine is photography.
Shot on the Fujifilm X100V using available light. Subjects at the frame edges were used to invite tension into the image, but the lighting portrays relaxation.
Subjects and purpose can always be hard - It’s fine to take a general self-portrait, but I wanted this one to mean something. Our two Ikea pigs that we share the bed with - Porkey and Pemblokto - were unable to accompany my wife for the trip, so I felt tying this series into a status update on their day-to-day made for a purpose behind the series, and doubled down by letting my wife know I was doing just fine.
Shot on the Fujifilm X100V using available light. The candid feel of this image is the first thing one notices but the various levels of sub-framing with the door frame and the mirror draw the eye in.
And I suppose through all of this the process was to tell myself I was doing just fine. I could still make images I was happy with even with a period of stagnation. I could still have fun with photography.
Shot on the Fujifilm X100V using available light. Symmetry is leveraged in this image, and the light provided by a white image displayed on the television creates a natural vignette.
Getting lost in the process, even for just a little while, helped clear my head and gave me something to look forward to each day.
Shot on the Fujifilm X100V using available light. Pose and dramatic lighting add tension to the image.
All images were shot using available light, and taken past sundown. I love low-light photography and have spent years walking town streets at night capturing images with available light. This was an easy extension of that. Scrounging for scenes and framing throughout the day and working with the camera timer (Fuji had just released a new and functional camera remote for iOS/Android a few days after I finished this series…) kept me engaged.
Shot on the Fujifilm X100V using available light. Symmetry and odds are leveraged in this frame, with some weight in the image thrown to the right with the arm position.
I’m looking forward to doing something again like this in the future. And I’m happy to have made this series. It made my wife incredibly happy, and now I have something to look back at when I feel that pit of anxiety in my stomach again.