final posts: Katelin Jensen

'The Patella'

‘The Patella’ stemmed from a rather odd insecurity I have had since childhood. I have always felt as though my knees have resembled potatoes, as ridiculous as this sounds. I wanted to explore the idea of other's insecurities, as important and apparent as they seem to the individual the burden is not always obvious to others. 

When I first began shooting ‘The Patella’, the goal behind the project was to rid myself of my pre-existing insecurity by proving to myself that my knees would not stand out in comparison to others. In the end, it very much transformed into the study of the average person’s insecurities.  At one point, I went door to door asking if I could photograph people’s knees. This allowed me to document a large demographic of people. While doing this, I observed that only a very small percentage of the people participating in this collection didn’t put themselves down in some way in reference to their body shape, size, or texture which was quite disappointing to me. To hear others be as hard on themselves as I am to myself on a daily basis definitely resonates with me.

These images were taken in the comfort of the subjects’ home, or other locations where they felt comfortable. This allows the viewer to observe a sense of vulnerability felt by the subject while letting someone into their personal space, as well as the comfort felt from being in a familiar environment. I shot all of these images with a 50mm fixed lens so that the background was out of focus, but the viewer still gets a sense of the surrounding environment.