Ava Campana Makes Absurd Self-Portraits Out of Florida’s ‘Layers of Shit’

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Inspired by her Florida upbringing and the absurd polarity of the sunshine state, Ava Campana’s self-portraits show the malleability of self-presentation. Here, she talks us through the American dream-cum-nightmare.

AVA CAMPANA: I went to high school across the water from Palm Beach Island, which is infamous for Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago. I was constantly surrounded by that gun-toting, red-blooded American archetype. Living there when Trump got voted into power brought me to an awakening super quickly.

Not long after, the Parkland high school shooting happened. Our school went into lockdown. I had friends who knew people who went to that school. Friends of friends passed away in that shooting. Those two events—and the reactions to them—made me very aware of where I was living. There are a lot of really great qualities to Florida, they’re just very disguised and behind many layers of shit.

I came to New York City to study photography, but my first year sucked. I was literally taking pictures of garbage on the ground. At the time, I was like, “This is revolutionary.” Looking back, I was just depressed. I made a pact with myself that I’d make work I was proud of and took my first self-portrait in sophomore year.

I had these big ideas to do characters. My biggest influence is Nadia Lee Cohen: She had a series where she found name tags from different businesses and then created personas centered around them. She did another series where she had a prosthetics team. I was very impressed with that work, that you can transform like that.

I didn’t want to take photos of anyone else, partly because of necessity. Once I get the idea, everything after that is very formulaic—I have it down pat. I get a very clear image of what I want the portrait to look like in terms of styling, hair, and makeup. And then I’m thinking: Who is this character? What are their likes and dislikes? I create this whole profile. I listen to the music I think this person would listen to.

Absurdity is what I’m thinking about when I’m making the work. Our society feels absurd. American capitalism, corporate greed, all these things—it becomes a lot. It’s like a huge cloud of just shit everywhere. My work interprets all of that by using comedy and satire because sometimes I don’t know how else to deal with all those emotions. Absurdity almost feels comfortable.

Follow Ava Campana on Instagram.

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