THE HAWTHORNE EFFECT 2017 - 2024

A portrait project exploring how behaviour shifts when the body becomes aware of being observed.

The Hawthorne Effect is a conceptual portrait project examining how behaviour shifts when individuals become aware they are being observed.

Participants spend extended time within a minimal photographic environment where posture, expression, and gesture gradually evolve in response to the presence of the camera. The project attends to what emerges in that space: the micro-adjustments, the moments of self-consciousness, the body caught in the act of deciding how to be seen.

The series takes its title from the psychological phenomenon describing how people modify their behaviour under observation. Rather than attempting to suppress these shifts, the work treats the fragile space between spontaneity and performance as the most revealing moment of all.

What the portraits expose is not who a person is when unguarded, but how they negotiate the presence of a watching eye. In that negotiation — subtle, continuous, and largely invisible — visibility reveals itself as an active force shaping behaviour and placing the boundary between authenticity and self-presentation under pressure.