Keep Trying Harry

Achievement isn’t one size fits all. There is no template, unlike the mass-produced trophies often used to commemorate it. Different amounts of effort are required for people to achieve the same goals, and the goals society teaches us – implicitly or explicitly – are often a reflection of normative values. Keep Trying Harry looks at achievement and how individuals and society place expectations on themselves and others. These expectations start from the very beginning of our lives and continue throughout. Common markers of success in your formative years are the reports and awards which are central to this series. Through photographing my own participation – through trophies alongside quotes from school reports commemorated as plaques – this series investigates my personal experience with achievement in a humorous way. The images of trophies also serve as documentation of their existence, as the series culminates in them being destroyed in order to create a new trophy. Through the deconstruction of object identifiers of success, the work aims to move away from self-worth based on the feedback of others to the celebration of one’s own achievement. Our past shapes who we are today, but to an extent we ourselves can shape who we are and where our time is spent to create our future.

Untitled, 2021  

pigment print

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