My project called ‘Projections’ shows high contrast black and white images made using a projector. Throughout this project, I was inspired by 1960’s black and white pop art as well as high contrast black and white photographers such as Irving Penn.  

My work explores beauty in an abstract form as people’s faces and bodies are hidden in patterns yet we still find them beautiful. It reflects on how our own views on how we look are often distorted because of the society we grow up in (with idealised beauty in media). My images show beauty is definitive as each person, has different things that they believe make a person beautiful.

We look at other peoples insecurities and find them beautiful but we are harsh on ourselves, so this project invites you to challenge your own perception on yourself. The images also have a focus on femininity as I wanted to capture women who felt empowered by their own feminine energy so that the images give off an edgy, powerful feel to them. I hope this set of work makes people, especially women, reflect on how they see themselves and work more towards body acceptance and self love. 

In addition to this, I created a large darkroom print of Ellie Avison to celebrate her individuality. The print is made from lots of smaller pieces of paper for us to piece together like a jigsaw. This illustrates how complicated we all are as people as we all have lots of different things that make up who we are as a person. A big part of Ellie’s individualism is her style which she expresses through her clothes, jewellery and hair. For the print, I deliberately had the hair and jewellery in a sharper focus compared to the rest of her as it brings attention to her style and individuality.

The image of Sophia Evans represents a confident clarity as her headphones drown out the negative noises we encounter as young women. Women have lots of outside pressure from several outlets telling us how be and look and by choosing to not listen to this we can find a better understanding of who we really are. My image of Caitlin Barham also shows a confident and glamorous pose however the deliberate blur comments on attempts to subvert the male gaze