The Roller Coaster…

This is the story of my life at present, a roller coaster, one day I’m up and the next down, sometimes it’s not too bad and I can cope with it easily other days though it gets really bad to the point where the pain is extreme and I’m am immovable until the pills kick in then zombie land arrives. It does however give me the time to reflect on my work and to think of new projects and where I’m goin wrong on the current brief, and to also figure out solutions so the time is never really wasted even though some might say that I am at the time, but then look at the past and some of our more infamous artists who regularly took drugs to take them to places where they can find their muses.

So that brings me to this week started out painfully and got a little worse, my model for the  suicide shot ended up in hospital, but I do have a backup plan, most important in photography, always have a plan b and sometimes plan c, d and even e, you will never regret having too many plans but you will regret the day when everything is required and your stuck because something in your plan has failed, I learnt this from a professional whose input has been invaluable and I believe it is a most valuable tool for us all to have in our arsenal.

So at the moment I am working away on my paper work, I have two practicum briefs on the trot, my main practice brief and of course this my ebow, (evolution of body of work), this parts easy as it is just rambling and putting down what I am doing, pretty easy huh, yeah right, trying to put into words stuff that is in ones head is not always as easy as ya think, especially using the right words. My photography for this brief is still coming along strong, my ideals and goals have not changed regardless of interruptions, I still will achieve my final goal as determination outweighs my illness by 110%, The domestic abuse photos look great I have purchased the mirror for the backdrop and will get the perspex cover for the front, the print will be on transparency paper and sandwiched between the two of them, the illusion is that when the viewer sees the mirror and image it will overlap their own face, again loading the image for the viewer personally. If I can make a personal connection with the viewers in each of my images then and only then have I managed to achieve the outcome I desire, that to make the viewer feel, empathise  even with the victims, to ask the questions and have none of the answers, a by product of western culture.

We recently did an essay on the Christian influence on Western Culture and photography, well lets say my essay might have caused a few eyebrows to be raised, I said Christianity has no place in photography that it is sciences domain, and the influence on Western culture today is the “mericka way of accepting no responsibility and laying all the blame on others, now I know that is hard for some to swallow and generally those that get defensive are sheeples coveted by media and large corporations and politicians lies, and people really that’s all they ever do to the population and we even pay them to do it. I tend to load my images with symbolism and metaphors other times totally literal they are, but I do not always place them for the reasons people think mostly I do it because I can other times for the general reaction and sometimes just to make the viewers ask why?

Today I am still a little off from over the weekend of not having the full dose of medications as I wanted to be more coherent for what was happening around me rather than being the drooling zombie in the corner, hahaha at least when the zombie revolution comes I’ll be fine in fact I’ll probably end up the king of zombies.

But I digress, I am still doing my work for college, I have looked at my work and starting to critique it, thankfully using less images makes it so much easier believe me, though it puts the pressure on to get the shot right the first time but for that I can only thank Steve McCurry his work is inspirational and his dedication unwavering. Another couple of photographers I follow and would like to thank as well are Jason Edwards a National Geographic photographer and Micheal Paul Smith creator of Elgin Park, both of these guys are fantastic in the respective fields and had the graciousness to be my subjects for essays while at college, the info Micheal supplied me was amazing and gave me so much insight into the world of miniature and Jason’s background and success in his chosen field and the dedication to which he shows is inspirational to anybody, without having done these essays and getting the insights I have I would not be able to critique my work with a new and refreshed eye. Both look at their work differently and this helps one to think about how they look at their own work, it should never be with one view but that of multiple views, this enables an artist to get the best out of their work and portray any message perfectly.

That’s not to say they have been the only influence, I have to give full credit to my tutors where it is also due, for my time at the college they have pushed me beyond my comfortable zone and into a new era, I have a refreshed approach to my work and the world around me, while I have always admired the beauty in things I now create an image from my view of that beauty or even just to better present that image to others.

Right so now off to write up my experiments and a little more on my bookwork some further research on my chosen subjects (its been ironic that lately there is a lot of media attention on these subjects when it was briefly quiet before) and then have a break from the screen before my brain gets too addled.

I will also have to get around adding a few images here, I only haven’t as yet because I have a facebook page and website hosting on images which I have linked on my profile here