In Awkward, Fullerton-Batten’s newest series, her subjects, both female, and now male approach adulthood. Her imagery places the adolescents in that moment of social awkwardness when two or more people attract. In that moment of indecision, for fear or apathy, or not knowing what to do, a critical crossroad is reached, one that could lead to acceptance or social isolation.
Fullerton-Batten’s photographs mirror the culture these young adults are brought up in. Her subjects live in a new age of subjective reality. Where relationships are nurtured through impersonal social media and where popular entertainment centers around “reality” based TV and CGI movies. Fullerton-Batten’s highly stylized design, from sets to wardrobe to make-up comments on the how advertising and media persuasion effect the adolescents interpersonal relationships. While her subjects are set in a pristine reality, they appear unreal. This reality vs. non-reality play back to her early Teenage Stories work. Here she strips the image down to its essentials: subject and environment and through composition, lighting and gesture intertwines non-reality and reality seamlessly continuing the progression of a teenage girls life.
Since 2004, Julia Fullerton-Batten has been working with the idea of adolescence. Her ground break¬ing series “Teenage Stories” placed pre-teen girls in situations where reality and non-reality collided. Her subjects were introduced with new responsibilities, torn from their lives of day-dreaming and fantasy. With her following series “School Play” and “In Between” Fullerton-Batten guided her subjects through their teenage years, confronting issues of self-awareness, social peer pressures, conformity and their places, within their home lives.
Julia Fullerton-Batten is represented by RandallScottProjects
Awkward Series is available in two editions (44”x50” edition of 7 and 25”x32” edition of 15).
