Please Disturb by Selina Roman
Please Disturb takes its title from the ubiquitous door hangers that signal to hotel/motel staff to not bother their guests. However, I want to be disturbed. From check-in to check-out, I use the motel room as a studio. I work in a directorial mode within a space that is intimate, liminal and impersonal. Using numerous costumes and props, participants transform themselves and we create a new narrative. More often than not, neither the participants nor I know how the session will unfold. The resulting photographs are a product of concocted stories, shared memories, and crossed physical and psychological boundaries.
From the peeling pastel exteriors to the dated, tropical linens, every old Florida motel is imbued with hope, beauty and sadness. These endearing, flawed characteristics set them apart from the homogenized chain motels. The motels serve as several metaphors for this complicated peninsula – aging beauty, secrets, spectacle and transformation.
Selina Roman lives and works in Tampa, Florida.
To view more of Selina’s work, please visit her website.
Draped, Bedspread and Drapes
That Liminal Space
Bubble Head
Warm Mineral Springs Motel
I Thought You Were Interested
Solar Flare II
Warm Mineral Springs Silhouette
We Went Out Conquering, and to Conquer
Aim Higher
Drowning in a Desert
Crying and Laughing Feel Like the Same Thing
Hold My Hair, Would You?
Exhales Sharply
It’s French for Jealousy
Ebb Tide