The first projects were Dreams, Journey and Future. For Dreams, I experimented with darkroom photos and learned how to overlay pictures in Photoshop. For Journey, I made lots of progress experimenting with a wider range of artistic techniques; Both in camera and whilst editing. During the most recent project -Future- I gained some experience and knowledge of what it’s like working with a client (ACCU) and got more skilled at photo manipulation to create imaginative composite images. I feel I made the most progress in creating photos with meaning during the Future project. Although I sometimes find it challenging, conveying feelings and emotions through visual imagery is something that I enjoy as it allows me to be as creative as I can be. I found this is a skill that many fine art photographers seem to possess, which led to me choosing Fine Art as my specialist creative practice.
My chosen concept for this project is Nightmares. A nightmare, also known as a bad dream, is an unpleasant dream that can create a strong emotional response from the mind- typically fear but also despair, anxiety, disgust or sadness. The dream may contain situations of discomfort, psychological or physical terror, or panic.
My aim for this project is to create disturbing or thought-provoking photographs which visualise fears and phobias that some people have. Looking at the work of a few different horror photographers such as Kelly Jean and Christopher McKenney, I have noticed that surrealism is a common theme among artists when putting together unsettling images. For this reason, I am planning to separate each of my individual shoots into multiple parts so I can edit numerous images together in post processing. During my specialist practice research, I explored what composite photography was and found an interest in it, so that is another thing I will focus on for the duration of this project. I plan on taking pictures both outside and in the studio.
After each shoot or experimentation, I will reflect on my work by writing about what I did, what went well and any challenges I ran into during it. I will use Digital Space to document this and keep track of my decision-making to see how my ideas develop throughout the project.