Leburas

For my Fine Art Photography class, we had to create a brand new word and create a video based on that word. We were supposed to take inspiration from the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows.

Coming up with an idea that was interesting to me but had a lot of content was difficult. First, I thought about doing a phobia, like a fear or being misunderstood every time you opened your mouth, but I didn't find a lot of content could be found in that word. Then I moved onto to a very artsy idea, but it evolved into a very big production, where I envisioned someone walking up a mountain with smoke bombs and jumping into water, and I didn't have the knowledge and time to capture all of that, so I moved one. It was very difficult to work with a topic that is very broad. I needed some limitation or rules to create some friction and getting my mind in gear.

Something about me: I tend to make things way intense they needed to be. I overthink a concept, and I saw that happening whilst planning this shoot, so I took a step backwards and thought "What is important yet simple?" I started to write down some ideas, and thought about what could create. During this process I was scrolling through social media, and one person posted something about self-love. The person talked about how important confidence is, and how self talk can be so destructive. "Be confident. Own your space. Making the decision to do these things is something I have to force myself to do daily."

That post has inspired me to create a word about self-love and confidence. The defintion is: "lover of their body's details." I broke that down and found words from different words and combined them, resulting in Leburas.

I wanted to capture some small details of the human body that I heard people disliked about their bodies. Hair, scars, folds, feet; the list goes on. I took that list and captured those things in a way where self-love is the message. I was lucky enough to work with the person who make that post that inspired me.

Erin is such a lovely person to work with. She's so open to many ideas, and fun to be ith. I couldn't be happier with the results.

I hope this video creates some self-love on this Sunday. Enjoy!