Dreams reponse

"I was on a road trip with my friends, we were all dressed up in halloween outfits, it was suddenly pitch black as we were driving down a lane then a car behind us started speeding up and chasing us, there were two people dressed as pumpkins in the car and as they crashed into the back of our car I woke up"

At first I had no idea how to respond to this dream, I had a lack of props (no pumpkins or cars anywhere) so I decided to team up with Shannon who hadn't been able to choose a dream and together we decided that instead of literally photographing what was said in the dream, so cars, pumpkins, people dressed up in halloween outfits, we thought about exploring the psychological side of it and what being chased in your dreams meant. We researched into and gathered information into how we could photograph.

"Chase dreams are one of several common dream themes, stemming from feelings of anxiety in your waking life. Flee and flight is an instinctive response to a physical threat in the environment. In such dreams, the scenario often features you being pursued by an attacker, an animal, a monster or an unknown figure, who wants to hurt or possibly kill you. Consequently, you run, you hide or you try to outwit your pursuer. Your actions in the dream parallel how you would respond to pressure and cope with fears, stress or various situations in your waking life. Instead of confronting the situation, your dream indicates that you have a tendency to run away and avoid the issue." - http://dreammoods.com/cgibin/chasedreams.pmethod=exact&header=dreamid&search=chaseintro

With this extract in mind we decided to create photographs that link more to the psychological side of the dream, trying to show feelings of distress, anxiety and loneliness. 

Spike Island gallery review.

My first thoughts on Spike Island gallery were that I didn't find it very visually inspiring. Although many of the galleries were good, I found Spike Island too out there and didn't quite understand all the pieces. In my opinion it felt like I would need something like a paragraph explaining each piece for me to have understood it properly, it was a bit annoying having nothing to go by but once I had discussed pieces with others I started to understand them more.

One of the pieces that interested me a lot was the one with fluorescent lights and water bottles

I found these interesting as you get completely lost in it even though its simply some lights and a sheet of something reflective. I found it quite inspirational how the lights can represent infinity. I wasn't too sure about what the water bottles were there to represent but I just found it weirdly hypnotic how the light working with the reflective sheet changes light and how you see things.
  Although that was the only thing I found particularly interesting in the exhibition, I would like to see if I can look at pieces of work like this differently and ask myself different questions instead of trying to just find the meaning behind something and hopefully understand contemporary art better.

Photographer Timothy Archibald photographs his five-year-old autistic son's unique behaviour to better understand his condition.

I recently stumbled upon an article about a photographer called Timothy Archibald that started documenting his five year old son's, Elijah's, peculiar mannerisms to show behavioural specialists. Repetitive behaviours that were difficult  to understand, an obsession for mechanical objects and being socially withdrawn were characteristics that eventually led to Elijah’s diagnosis of autism. 

As he continued to photograph Elijah, Elijah became interested in the process of making the images and would provide input on changing the setting or the position. And the project, “Echolilia,” was born. Echolilia is a term the refers to the repetition of words or phrases which is often a symptom of those diagnosed with autism. I found the photographs interesting in the way that they all seem to be very dream like and what I get from them is a sense of loneliness that no one can understand and I think these photos capture how a child with autism soothes themselves. I just found the whole project they both did extremely interesting as it was a way of them both getting to know each other as father and son. 

http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2027433,00.html

Grayson Perry - 'What the boundaries of arts are' Lecture.

I recently listened to a Grayson Perry lecture on what the boundaries of art are. He talks about what does and does not qualify as art and how the limits of what we can call art are softer and have become softer since modernism began in the 60's, since then people have started to question the nature of art and what can actually be called art.  How arts boundaries are psychological, financial, philosophical and tribal. At the start of the lecture, the first thing the lady that who introduced Perry asked him whether him being dressed as a woman to the lecture was art, he replied with no and further on in the lecture explained how you can literally make anything and call it art these day.
   He talks about how he determines whether something is a work of art and explains the boundaries and questions you can ask yourself when trying to determine whether something is a piece of art; is it in a gallery or art context? Is it a boring version of something else? Is it made by an artist? If they're smiling its probably not art? etc etc. He quotes Martin Parr who said "If its bigger than 2 meters and priced higher than 5 figures then its probably art", I think that this is an accurate representation of what art basically is now, something is only considered art if it is made by someone that is already famous and the piece of work is priced high and although he says that contemporary art has no boundaries at all, I believe that there will always be something holding someone back from doing something purely because they think because of whoever they may be they won't get recognised for that piece of artwork, which links in to what Grayson says in the lecture about the boundaries of art being psychological.

Gregory Crewdson - Brief Encounters

Seeing how Gregory Crewdson show people how he creates his photographs makes me appreciate his photographs more. When I first saw some of Gregory Crewdson's photographs I thought that they were paintings. The way that everything in the photograph is perfectly placed and staged it almost looks too good to be real. 

I like the way that his photographs have a dramatic, cinematic feel to them and how they often feature disturbing surreal events. His use of surrealism in his photographs has led me to research more into that method of photography and  incorporate some of his techniques into my own work. 

http://viooz.co/movies/18512-gregory-crewdson-brief-encounters-2012.html

Photography and desire.

Nan Goldin -

Some of Nan's earliest work was based around her photographic journeys among the Boston's gay and transsexual communities. After she graduated in the late 70's she moved to New York City where she began documenting the post-punk new-wave music scene, along with the city's vibrant gay subculture of the late 1970s and early 1980s. She was drawn especially to the Bowery's hard-drug subculture; these photographs, taken between 1979 and 1986 which form her famous work The Ballad of Sexual Dependency. These snapshot aesthetic images depict drug use, violent, aggressive couples and autobiographical moments.

What inspires me the most about her work is that she uses her camera as a form of remembering certain things that have happened in her life and how she documents her experiences. Her photographs are normally shot with natural light as well which is something I would like to start doing.

 

First Impressions

For my first response to the brief 'First Impressions' I was unsure of whether to go with landscapes and respond more to the document and location themes that were stated in the brief. I decided in the end to do portraiture and go with the themes identity. My first impressions of Swansea weren't to do with the town but more to do with the people that I was about to live with for the next year in halls. Looking into the themes of documentation and identity, I thought about creating portraits of people but in their own rooms at halls, maybe not having them even in the photograph and just documenting their surroundings that they're in every day. For me, when I first moved into halls I wanted to make my room a representation of myself and what I'm like. It takes us one tenth of a second to figure out our first impression of someone. Rooms may not always be a clear representation of people but I felt people would want to represent themselves through their rooms as clearly as they could. In halls you get to know someone by their possessions first than you do their personalities. Even though I thought this was an idea I could elaborate more on the fact I only knew my hall mates for about 2 weeks seemed a bit forward to ask them to photograph their rooms, also the fact that everyone seemed to be out whenever I was free to do photos and whenever there was good light!

   I finally decided to look more into photographers such as Irving Penn, Bill Brandt, Cindy Sherman and explored more into different types of portraiture. I initially knew that I wanted to do black and white portraits and what better subjects than my housemates, although only a few agreed to let me take photos of them, I was quite happy with the end result. I think I could of planned out the shoot much better than I did, by the time I had thought of a new idea I was very short on time and had to create a makeshift studio in my own room at halls. I did the best I could with lighting etc but what I wanted to portray in my portraits was how kind their personalities are. The way they are in the photographs is completely natural, I didn’t want it to be posed or to have props or anything like that. I caught them all off guard and asked if I could have a quick photo of them, half of them are getting ready for bed/showering and the rest were in pyjamas. I wanted it to be as natural as possible and hopefully showing how kind they’re personalities are. I did get a lot of different results from the shoot but the ones I chose for the finals I think go well with each other and portray them the best.

 

Let's see what happens - Mission Gallery Review

I recently visited the exhibition 'Let's see what happens' at the Mission gallery featuring the work of seven artists, four from Wales and three from China. The whole exhibition is mainly of all of the artist's work that has been influenced by their experiences over the past 4 years of travelling and spending time together in Swansea, Xiamen and Shanghai. Different themes emerge from all the artworks creating a unique installation.

When first entering the Mission Gallery the whole exhibition was arranged in what seemed like a timeline. It seemed to introduce you to the team before you got the chance to take a look at the other photographs. I was unconsciously guided in a certain direction. The photographs that were exhibited I felt took portraiture to a whole new level. It didn't confine itself to the norms of portraiture, which are mainly a model sitting still in front of the camera, black and white backdrops etc, which in my opinion restricts what portraiture is actually meant to be. Maleon and his team created portraits that actually represent peoples personalities accurately, his use of props and backgrounds which I think are the main structure to the photographs, tell the story without anyone having to tell you anything about the person he is photographing. The photos told stories about each individual person and no two photos were the same which was in a way, very inspiring as I have never thought about doing portraiture this way. The photographs are all unique in their own way and the props are never used entirely the same.

What I found interesting was that they had decided to exhibit photographs of themselves working and printed pages of articles almost like a collage, this made it very personal and it was a better way of getting to know the photographers from a different perspective instead of reading about them. I also found intriguing the fact they had incorporated photographs from the welsh photographers in the project at the back of the exhibition. The photographs were in the same style as the ones from where they traveled around China but had a hint of uniqueness to them that you could tell just by looking at them that they were taken in Wales.

The images were all very coherent together, although all unique in their own way, they blended together perfectly. I especially liked personal touches to the exhibition as a whole, from the sketches on the wall, to the collages, you could tell that the installation was personal to the photographers involved in the project. I would definitely recommend a trip to the Mission gallery to have a look around  'Lets see what happens..', it gives you a whole different perspective on portraiture and has inspired me to think differently with my own  portraits and how creative you can be if you push the boundaries of photography.