The Art of the Personal Project is a crucial element to let potential buyers see how you think creatively on your own. I am drawn to personal projects that have an interesting vision or that show something I have never seen before. In this new revised thread, I’ll include a link to each personal project with the artist statement so you can see more of the project. Please note: This thread is not affiliated with any company; I’m just featuring projects that I find. Please DO NOT send me your work. I do not take submissions.
Today’s featured artist: Kris Connor
As I move throughout this world of ours, I wonder at times..how would I have seen and lived in this world if I hadn’t gone through limb lengthening as a child?. Where “Dawson,” gave the viewer a glimpse into what it’s like to go through limb lengthening for Dawson. ”What Difference a Foot Makes,” answers that question for myself and to give a viewer two different perceptions of the same world. One through my eyes at being a 5’2 person and how I would have seen the same world at 4”3.
I was born with achondroplasia, which is the most common of the 200 plus types of dwarfisms. Most people who have the condition average around an adult height of four feet, my predicted height was going to be 4”3 without any additional operations.
At ten years old, I made the decision to go through my first limb lengthening operation. Over the next five years I would go through a total of three operations on my upper and lower legs to gain 12 inches and one operation to gain four inches on my arms.
The operation started in Russia in the 1950s by Doctor Vetlana Ilizarov.
It’s an operation where pins are inserted into the leg or arm and a fixture is placed around the extremity and the bone is broken. Over the next three to four mouths months screws are turned to spread the bone apart and the patient gains an average of four to six inches. Many patients have multiple operations to gain addition height.
”What Difference a Foot Makes,” is a story told with 21st century technology and through social media. All the images are shot using an iPhone, as many of the scenes are part of everyday life and situations that I come across. I will take a photo of a scene at my current eye level and then one at where my eyes would had been without limb lengthening. The images are then layered in an app called “Collage King,” creating a diptych with my current height photo on top and the 4’3 eye level photo on the bottom. Video diptychs have been created as well to show the view what it’s like to navigate through places such as Time Square. The diptych is then uploaded to the “@whatdiffernceafootmakes” instagram account and shared with the world.
To see more of this project, click here.
On Instagram, click here
APE contributor Suzanne Sease currently works as a consultant for photographers and illustrators around the world. She has been involved in the photography and illustration industry since the mid 80s. After establishing the art buying department at The Martin Agency, then working for Kaplan-Thaler, Capital One, Best Buy and numerous smaller agencies and companies, she decided to be a consultant in 1999. She has a new Twitter feed with helpful marketing information because she believes that marketing should be driven by brand and not by specialty. Follow her at @SuzanneSease.