Mika Orotea

Meet the Parsons photographer exploring form on a whole new level

When considering how to structure this feature, I can’t help but focus first and foremost on the incredible variety to Mika’s portfolio. The sheer range of subjects that are on display throughout her work is testament to her ability to encapsulate a stunning rawness, whatever the context.

The series Mika originally submitted to us, 人形 (nin-gyo), evidences this most strongly, with her subjects becoming simply a “palette or tool [with which] to produce the work I create”. In this way, the bodies are simply still-lives, objects like any other, rather than functioning organisms. This leads Mika to view herself as not just a photographer, because the staging and casting for her shoots also epitomises the role of a performance director. Just like Viviane Sassen and Erwin Wurm, who influenced this series, Mika is skilfully documenting a moment but striving to maintain the unbridled energy of the real, worldly scenario.

To do this, she develops an interesting rapport with her subjects (or ‘objects’, as Mika would call them). She tells us that “confidence and trust is key when working…it’s necessary that I push my subject to not be aware of the camera and to be very comfortable with themselves”. However, Mika’s urban photographic work demonstrates her ability to capture location – and all the background sentiment that goes with it – just as well as she manipulates the human form in other shoots. Thus, her DUSTY project, below, is an exposé of her home town, magnificently exhibiting the isolation and detachment that she felt herself when returning from New York.

As a current student, Mika is at the inception of her learning experience and career, but has so far demonstrated an unwavering knack for documenting both the abstract at the emotionally affective. Make sure you check out the images below, including a developing series of self-portraiture entitled ‘Bodies’. As Mika’s repertoire develops, we look forward to seeing how this series evolves too.

mikaorotea.com