Stacy Martin’s artwork is a continual investigation of the concept of individual identity through an unconventional photography method. Research being an absolutely pivotal aspect of her interdisciplinary practice, she frequently extends to her work the application of critical feminist theory, psychoanalytic theory, and scholarship from various, prominent philosophers and critics. One such thinker who has greatly contributed to Martin’s desire to understand the very nature of photography is Roland Barthes. Specifically, his ideas about the function of photography as a performance as well as its ability to capture essence and illicit memory have been synthesized and analyzed by Martin, serving as sources of conceptual inspiration throughout her body of work. Because her images have a direct and unrelenting quality in addition to a stylistically raw aesthetic, Martin’s work often harkens back to that of some of her earliest influences: Joel-Peter Witkin and Miroslav Tichý.

 

Martin’s artistic process affords her three distinct experiences: that of the photographer, the subject, and the first viewer. Using a Holga, she creates in-camera multiple exposures on medium format film. Beginning each piece with a portrait of herself, Martin then exposes and advances the film at random, focusing primarily on texture, lighting, and composition. The construction of the Holga allows for distortions such as blurring and light leaks—happenstances which are welcomed additions. Ultimately, this experimental, multiple exposure process produces richly layered and multivalent photographic images. Because Martin’s own likeness is othered and morphed into a new collection of representational and nonrepresentational forms, the finished pieces become something of a Rorschach test, allowing for psychoanalytic interpretation. These often poignantly chaotic and fragmented images are a great departure from classical female portraiture, and for Martin, they function in two important ways: to defy popular notions of female representation in Western fine art and to sever any strong sense of authorship from the image. The latter, Martin believes, allows for a more open interpretation from any given viewer. Thus is also the reason that most of her work remains untitled.