Zoe Navarro, Chicago
Member Since April 2009
Artist Statement ::Zoe Navarro, aka Selkie::
Photographer/Performer/Model/Poet & All Around Loon...
I am a girl - I take a lot of photographs and write a lot of words, both which i manipulate and generally mess about with until they look they way i want. As a teenager i began writing angst-ridden and incredibly bad poetry - i like to think over the years, i've improved a bit.
I began photography quite accidentally - and because of an accident. I became ill in 2003 with an auto-immune illness, and shortly after injured my spine - an event that left me largely bedridden for several months; i wore a backbrace constantly and was told i may never walk without a cane. I was given a camera as a gift, which i used on myself as a way to document my recovery and relieve the stultifying boredom. I turned the lens on myself because there was no one else around, and i was confined to my own apartment for months, with only short physical-therapy walks in the Honolulu University district. Self-portraiture is my first love, and is still the main focus of my work.