Turned out completely different then i inteded it to be. Touristing at became somewhat of a challenge to me not only in technical ways. I always wanted to do a project with self representation (even though i feel slightly uncomfortable in front of a camera) and i thought the Artist in Residence would be a good opportunity to portrait myself as a Tourist in Coimbra. At first I was planning to shoot the pictures myself with an external self release shutter but unfortunately it stopped working after one shot, so I was more or less forced to ask the most embarrasing question i could imagine to others : Can you take a picture of me ? was the sentence I was going to ask on a daily basis .
After the first pictures I found out that it wasn´t that embarassing to ask at all and for others it seemed to be something pretty natural that a Tourist needs a pictured of himself posing in front of some national monument. During the first days I still tried to controll a lot of how the picture was taken and what should be inside of the frame. But after I saw the first results with fingers in front of the lens, pictures taken vertically instead of horizontally I felt it was very hard to describe to others what I see and that people had their own minds of what should be inside of the frame. I had quite a hard time in the first days to let go of that creative controll I otherwise have when I do the images myself but I came to see it as a coproduction with unpredictable results. I still consider it as an unfinished project because for me it still lacks the YES thats it feeling coming up normally after I´ve finished a project so I thought I will continue with asking others to take pictures of me.
After the first pictures I found out that it wasn´t that embarassing to ask at all and for others it seemed to be something pretty natural that a Tourist needs a pictured of himself posing in front of some national monument. During the first days I still tried to controll a lot of how the picture was taken and what should be inside of the frame. But after I saw the first results with fingers in front of the lens, pictures taken vertically instead of horizontally I felt it was very hard to describe to others what I see and that people had their own minds of what should be inside of the frame. I had quite a hard time in the first days to let go of that creative controll I otherwise have when I do the images myself but I came to see it as a coproduction with unpredictable results. I still consider it as an unfinished project because for me it still lacks the YES thats it feeling coming up normally after I´ve finished a project so I thought I will continue with asking others to take pictures of me.
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