Carlos Morante

A second sense of self

the inspiration for this series comes from my own experience in social media ( instagram ) and the examination of myself and a whole young generation of users as we use the platform to promote our work or ourselves, becoming addictive to positive feedback and furthermore indoctrinated by it. How the indoctrination works in social media is something as old as myths and its representations in iconic art images as the ideals of beauty, courage, virtue or masculinity we have historically shaped our behaviour after for centuries. The easiest strategy for users then is to copy the examples of influencers creating a blank-safe commercial " persona" of themselves and exploiting their youth looks and sexuality to become someday verified by brand endorsements ultimately adequating themselves to the stereotypes they see rewarded. This series explores how by this process fueled by ambition and the need for validation we create a dichotomy between our self and a social media "brand-persona" and how is hard for the self can react or deal with the consecuences of the digital exposure that can become invasive like a drum tide. All models photographed were contacted via instagram and agreed to participate in the pictures in exchange of its use on their profiles and the possibility of getting the exposure that my profile and media publishing them could bring them, increasing their exposure and own followings. The criteria of censorship is the one followed by instagram. The images are named individually after the number of likes achieved on instagram posting them on similar affluence days and hours.