And on we go…..

Right so I don’t blog everyday, although sometimes I might add more than one blog in a day, such is the fun of having an over-active mind and also just a little note for any Grammar Nazis out there perhaps perusing this, there will be plenty of grammar mistakes, suck it up and get over it English is not a great language and is very hard for some to comprehend so accept that it is not grammatically correct but still readable and easy to understand. Yes I hate grammar nazis, in case you were wondering.

So I will pop in here every now and then until graduation and update this as I go along as I will also be presenting this at my exhibition to show how and why I came to do the images I have shot.

I had been doing a lot more research on my topics and speaking to my tutor about the content and context of my work and after this discussion I have found that while the content of the images will not change the way I display them will, instead of giving the viewer the full image I will give them only part of it but with enough information so that they can create the answers to their own questions and not to rely on them coming from me. I have finished some of my props and this week one of my models is getting made up to look like a domestic abuse victim and I will be shooting that on location as well, in fact as often my photos will pretty much all be done on location. I watched a couple of fashion style shoots over the weekend and really found that I have no passion for it or their style of photographing, what I call ‘Merica or paparazzi shooting, this is shoot as many frames as possible hoping for that one image that works instead of compiling the content to a point that the image is already there it’s just up to the photographer to show it to the world. I shoot as little frames as possible, if I don’t see in the frame what the image I see in my head then I change things piece by piece until the two images become the one. Believe me I know how easy it is to just rattle off the shots hoping for one, in my first year at college I shot over 5000 images my camera went from a virgin to a slogged out destitute in a very short time, however she still shoots great crisp clear images for me to work from, even if it is a Sony (just remember your sensor is a Sony SO THERE) it has been a brilliant entry level camera and has taken the knocks and abuse that I have provided it.

Oh and just for all you Sony haters I also use Canon and Nikon film and digital cameras so I just happen to prefer the reliability and backup Sony have provided, well that and I hate being mainstream it’s just so Hipster.

So what do I need to add here? How about what have I been researching exactly and who? Well to start with there is the Bang Bang Club more in particular Kevin Carter and his pulitzer prize winning photograph to be precise, this iconic image has bombarded people since its inception, Kevin himself was often ridiculed about it and questioned why he did not do something to help the child in question, but his response was that as a photojournalist he is compelled to take the photograph and share it, it was only after the public condemnation of it that a few years later Kevin took his own life, this which also feed into my suicide brief. Then there is also further research on both the child poverty and suicide, and how that these two can go hand in hand, often a person facing suicide believes that there cannot be a good outcome from the situation that they find themselves to be in and take their own lives, more often than not it has been found through survivors stories that if even just one stranger had of smiled, waved or even said hello that it might have changed their minds. This is often too true of the world today, we wander around in our own little worlds oblivious to the others that share this wonderful existence,  we believe that nobody else could ever comprehend the problems that we face that we are the only person to ever have dealt with them or even had to face them, not true, everybody faces hardships and down times just not everybody knows how to ask for HELP.

You know, today, you could save another persons life just by smiling, it does not matter whether they smile back or even say hello, the fact that you took a second out of your life to acknowledge theirs can be more than enough to bring them back from the brink of the edge of the dark hole that they see in front of them.

I also looked further into domestic abuse, wow, even though I experienced this first hand (watching my mother go through it) I was still surprised by some of the reports and victims stories that I came across, always remember no matter how hard it seems for you someone out there has it worse…everyday. I needed my image of this to be hard hitting and full of impact, but how? people have been so desensitized thanks to mainstream media and television. Kids grow up seeing violence in all forms from every avenue that the media controls, they are bombarded continuously and its no wonder that they have no compassion and accept no responsibility for the actions they do, another part of the ‘Merica culture, invade all your senses until your a mindless complying zombie. Oh and zombies are real, take a look at ya local politicians (zombies= things that suck the life out of ordinary people) for they are some of the biggest zombies ever and once they have you under their mind control its too late.

Poverty, more so child poverty what is it and why do we call it child poverty? surely they have parents and those parents are poor as well, well aren’t they? Ok I understand it in other countries where there are a lot of orphaned children and nobody to look after them but what about NZ, we have state social services we have child welfare agencies and places for abandoned children, so why do we have so many people living below the world recognized poverty line? and why do we insist on not adding the adults to this list? is this because we believe that as adults we should be able to control of finances and lifestyles whereas children rely on the adults to provide for them. But what about those through no fault of their own struggle to make ends meet each week? do we just forget about them? shove them under the carpet like we do with anything else to hard to face? it seems that maybe ‘Mericas reach has far more grip than people realize.

More to follow…………