This is a series of photographs that I started in Paris, France. I lay my body down on a quaint Parisian bridge and took pictures of the people as they pass above me. As time went on I found the most intriguing photos were those in which the subject was just as interested in me as I of them. The fact that my body is on the ground is a sign of animal submission, which gives my subjects the sense of beastial superiority. I am in fact the bait for the subject but I am also the hunter. I lay down on the ground in the same place everyday and watch the people and the clouds pass through my machine. I listen to the steps as they approach and I hope someone will come into view. If I'm lucky I get snarled at, smiled at, laughed at if it's a bad day I get ignored or hit on. The fact that I am a woman has a huge effect on what the outcomes have been of this series. I find that woman ten years around my age ignore me, or worse. Young men tend to get the wrong idea or laugh. Older men and women and children are by far the most curious about me. They are for me subjects of constant wonderment as well. I have singled out the old men and woman for this part of the series for the clues they carry of history especially of Paris's glowing years. They represent a Paris I will never know. And I like to think if history could look us in the eyes it would look a bit like this.
Have a curiously brilliant day,
Shayla Dopp
