I wanted to satirically criticize my generation for its addiction and obsession with technology. To achieve this, I personified various retro technological gadgets as ‘significant others’ or partners in a deep and passionate relationship. I chose to include all aspects of adult emotions to normalize the photographs for dramatic irony. Thus, I depicted moments of lust, love, frustration, sadness, and hatred.

 

The technology that I used is retro because I believe the period between the early 1980s and early 2000s is when technology transformed from being merely an additive element to our lives to being an element of complete dependency. The nostalgia of my photographs also contributed to criticizing extreme addiction to technology in that it exaggerated it.

 

To me, primary colors always symbolize technology because pixels are comprised of those very three hues. To emphasize the overwhelming power of technology in this generation, I initially chose to incorporate red, blue, and yellow wires in the photographs. As my photographs progressed, however, methods of integrating these colors expanded to encompass intentional decision-making with lighting, props, backgrounds, and makeup. The intensity of color as an essential element in the photographs developed to achieve the same underlying message through different and indirect means.

 

The photographs are also progressively diversified through my exploration of the different stages of a love relationship. This spans from images representing only the sexual aspect of an intimate relationship to images representing the raw and sometimes ugly aspects of an intimate relationship.

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Sara Nahhas

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