BetterOffAnon

Crypto has long been synonymous with anonymity and identity, and thus in the first shot of this collection the model is seen preparing for the story, or one could even call it the performance, with makeup in hand and the first of many wigs not yet worn, resting on the vanity. The first image is the only black and white image in the entire collection and acts as a prologue to the colours and stories that will follow from the next 32 photographs.

Nostalgia has been a common theme in my life and has translated quite a bit into my work as well. Most of my photographs are inspired by the photography I grew up to in the 80’s and 90’s and often you will see these hints in my photographs, like with BOA # 8, where the model reads a Playboy magazine casually in a bathroom that can only be described as what my Nonna’s washroom looked like. This theme of nostalgia throughout the collection adds to the fact that I believe it will be timeless and hard to date.

Memes are a constant in crypto culture, and I saw this as an opportunity to not only convey how memes permeate our daily life in the form of jokes and puns, but also how interconnected they are with art, individuality and imagery. BOA # 11 speaks to all of these: Renaissance art in the reflection which features a women as the subject, the writing on the mirror, the history of pinup magazines to the left, and the powerfully confident young women of our times seated prominently in the centre of it all.

Better Off Anon

Guido DiSalle

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Winding through the set you will encounter playfulness, nostalgia, pop culture, memes, fashion, identity, femininity, irony and eclecticism. Many will draw different inferences from the imagery, and that is by design. I wanted to create a story where most viewers could extract something from it and perhaps provoke thought and discussion.

Artistically speaking BOA is fluid and telling. You are drawn into the story, compelled to feel something, whatever it is. Artistically that is the end goal. It isn’t to be “liked” or necessarily even “understood” but it most certainly is to illicit a response. If BOA is to be measured by any standard, it must be measured in its entirety, as a complete story with a beginning and an ending and for its unique chronology.