Portland, ME
9/30/10 1:12PM
Janice Checchio was born in 1984. This puts her squarely in the midst of a generation of people birthed into a world of self-revelation, for whom blogs and Facebook are as common a form of communication and being as the private diaries and in-person rendezvous of the past. Hence her “365 – 2010” project, for which she is posting a digital self-portrait on the internet daily for a year, with the goal, she explains, of presenting “a full year of my life, captured as honestly as possible.” The surprise is that, at least by her own evidence, Janice Checchio is, um, really hot and really naked a lot of the time, à la www.suicidegirls.com, for which she would make an excellent photographer and model. She’s a redhead covered in tattoos, with a shaved crotch, sexy underthings, and a septum piercing. Her life seems to consist of her being nude everywhere, from her desk to the garage, bathroom, bed, stairs, kitchen, couch, and forest. She’s also sometimes clothed, as when lounging about town looking alternative and cool. At least, I suppose, she’s the one pointing the camera at her own female pulchritude. But is this really what diaristic self-reflection now amounts to? Is this really what Janice Checchio’s life is honestly about? And is this really what feminism fought so hard for? In part yes, but in greater part no. A good-looking naked young woman’s body is hers to do with as she pleases, but the hope is that she will use it for something more profound.
—Lori Waxman