Artists as Activists Proposal

     For the Artists As Activists project, I'm planning to take digital photos of as many belly buttons as I can. I'm involved with the Body Positive program at school and I'm interested in exploring the societal dynamics surrounding body image through the lens of the navel. I chose to focus on the belly button because it is a body part that is simultaneously intimate yet impersonal, and belly buttons are distinctive and diverse in appearance. For my final composition, I plan to make a big collage juxtaposing all of the different belly button photos. I want to show that there is no need to feel insecure about a body part as silly as a belly button, because everyone has a unique belly button and the appearance of one's belly button does not determine anything else about that individual. I will be taking photos with the studio lights upstairs in New House in order to achieve consistent lighting and coloring throughout my photos. My beginning goal is to get photos of 16 different belly buttons so I can arrange the photos into a large square, but I would eventually like to get as many photos as I can.