Abstracting My Home Environment

The following images are park of a collection of photographs which I didn't think I would end up going back through and talk about. During a recent critique in which I was explaining my project and how difficult it has been trying to move forward with both my life and work since my Nanan passed away, my tutor and several others caught a glimpse of these and wanted me to show them. My work till now has been filled with photographs which failed to communicate what it is I was feeling. Ever since my Nanan passed away I have felt nothing but confusion, and disorientation, and felt like I was here but not at the same time. I can hear things going on around me but my eyes failed to see. The photographs below were the first photographs which I had made since my Nanan passed away. These photographs were about me trying to communicate to myself what it is I was experiencing. I wanted to express myself in some way and show the pain that I was going through at that specific moment. It felt almost instinctive to make these photographs. When I brought up these images to the critique for the first time I felt that I had something which I could expand on. I had people stating that they could see the pain that I was experiencing and it affected them in some ways. They could look at these photographs and associate them within specific moments in their lives. This critique was the most emotional one that I had because I had to reflect on the first part of the project which was about finding my freedom and using it to confront mortality, to now exploring living without clarity and grief. 

To move forward within my project I am going to try recreate this technique and continue to make these abstract photographs.

 

Abstraction of Home Photography (Contact Sheets)

This collection of photographs are the ones that I never expected to be put on this blog. More will be explained when I release my chosen images from this collection. 

 

Photographer and Conceptual Art Research

 Jodi Cobb

Jodi Cobb is known to have been an explorer since an early age when she began to travel the world with her family, and has since then worked in sixty-five different countries. She uses her camera to ask questions about the human condition during an increasingly interconnected world. To me many of her photographs explore the freedom from the perspective of the oppressed such as "21st Century Slaves" which was an article she created for the National Geographic which exposes the tragedy of human trafficking. Her photographs are visually powerful and grabs your attention easily. 

Duane Michals

Duane Michals is an American photographer who creates narratives within his images. He blends his photographs with text format which is similar to cinematic sequences. His way of displaying his work can be evidenced in a group of nine photographs titles "Things are Queer". 

"I use photography to help me explain my experiences to myself," he reflected. I believe in the imagination. What I cannot see is infinitely more important than what I can see." This is something I can relate to because my photographs are a way for me to communicate what it is my mind can see rather than what I can see with my two eyes. My work allows me to speak to myself in regards to what it is I am experiencing in front of me. Acknowledging mortality and dealing with grief is like crimping a rocky mountain with a raging sea surrounding it. I want my photographs to disorientate people and have them experience what I am feeling within that set time.  

John Baldessari

John Baldessari was an American conceptual artists who blends photography, text, and painting. His work examines the plastic nature of artistic media while offering commentary on our contemporary nature. Contemporary art is the combination of materials, methods, concepts and subjects that challenge the boundaries within society. 

"I've often thought of myself as a frustrated writer," he explained. "I consider a word and an image of equal weight, and a lot of my work comes out of that kind of thinking." I can agree with this because within my work I have considered my text just an important as my photographs. Text can give the photograph the context which it needs in order to be fully understood and considered a finished piece of art. Quite a few of my photographs would just be considered as "pretty" photographs if it weren't for the text which went alongside them. 

Barbara Kruger

Barabara Kruger is an American conceptual artist and collagist. The majority of her work consists of black and whits photographs, overlaid with captions which are usually in white on red Futura Bold Oblique or Helvetica Ultra Condensed text. She addresses cultural constructions of power, identity, consumerism and sexuality by using pronouns such as you, your, I, we and they. I chose to look into Kruger because of how her use of text affected her work. Text which has been placed over an image is something which I am stull trying to wrap my head around. 

All Chosen Home Photography Photographs

This series of photographs are what I consider to be the strongest photographs which I had taken at home, but I am still unsure what to think of these images. I am finding it difficult to remove my personal feeling from these photographs and look at them objectively. Personally they are still in the development stage and so don't have any reason behind them other than there is a lockdown in place and so I need to make photographs at home. I am trying to photograph my current emotional state and the act of trying to move forward but at this moment in time it feel impossible. To get past this I will talk about my current photographs in a critique to see what I can get from other people. 

Home Photography 2

Home Photography 3

Home Photography 4