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AssetID: 31214958

Headline: Finnish Photographer Takes Controversial Self Portraits

Caption: Some of us use selfies as a vain form of self-expression, trying to make ourselves look richer, happier or more beautiful than we really are. Finnish photographer Iiu Susiraja, however, turns this concept of the selfie on its head by taking brutally honest, surreal and unflinchingly funny self-portraits using her own body and other objects as props. Susiraja’s work isn't for everyone, though. She once received an e-mail from an unknown sender telling her to 'go and get a proper job.' Not exactly the kind of reaction a photographer would like to hear, but it's critiques like that, which Iiu says are the “best part” of her work. In her 2008-2010 ‘Good Behaviour’ photo collection, Iiu wedges a broom under her breasts in "Luuti", while in "Self-Service" she puts her body weight on a tray underneath. To understand why Susiraja is doing this, you’d have to make sense of her artist statement: ‘I photograph me because it is the subject I certainly know the best. I make object of myself and my privacy, which is a moment of fame. To turn the privacy as a public is a shelter for me. I feel privacy very painful. When I have been spoken about my art I have mentioned words: the documentation of emotions. My art it is like a playful anarchism with equipment and the rituals of taking back the power. Everyday life is my muse’. Currently completing her MA studies in Fine Art, Susiraja’s work evolves dramatic domestic situations involving femininity, the body, traditions, social stereotypes and love – in the least boring, most satirical way possible.

Keywords: feature,photo feature,photo story,portrait,photography,photo,body,self,honest,female

PersonInImage: Iiu Susiraja