Alter Ego, by photojournalist Robbie Cooper, has been floating around on several different
blogs. Its premise is a side-by-side comparison of people and their avatars. These fabricated online identities offer insight into each person's self. Some illustrate actual qualities - physical features and perceived personality traits exaggerated to sometimes comedic cartoonish effect. Others pretty clearly represent desired characteristics.
It's fascinating, revealing, and, in some cases, heartbreaking to see these juxtaposed images. The fact that Cooper's book includes detailed profiles of each of the pairs reminds me a lot of
another coffee table book that I really enjoy:
The Oxford Project. Similar to
Alter Ego, this collection of
photos by Peter Feldstein compares images of the residents of a small midwestern town, taken 20 years apart. Each person was given the opportunity to talk a little bit about his or her life, proud accomplishments and weighty disappointments alike. Though I suppose it's possible that I'm just projecting the contents of the text onto the images, I swear you can see these emotions reflected subtly in some of the photos.
I think each piece is a fantastic expression of the human spirit, as well as a testament to the power of photography as an art form. Kudos to the authors for a couple of very creative, thought-provking ideas. The image below (copyright Robbie Cooper) is one of my favorites that was posted online.
