Mental health is the pandemic of our generation, over 10 million people in the UK have a phobia whether it is of spiders, heights, clowns or something a little more unique. When thinking about phobias people often think of overly dramatic or sensitive people.
This is far from realistic as phobias stem from childhood and often rule and dictate people’s lives. My exhibition raises awareness through a crime suspect board. This is because often people struggle to see the significance of mental health until they can see a physical sign. For my project I am personifying fears, the grasp they have on someone’s reality and freedom, taking over their whole life. The suspect is some peoples oldest and closest friend… their phobia.
For my FMP I have decided to make it all about Body Positivity. I chose this for my final major project because when the body is mentioned in the media it is always from a negative perspective. Such as the media stating that we have dietary issues as some people are overweight or people are harming their bodies. I wanted to help create a culture of change by showing that people should be able to present their bodies in their own way and should not be ashamed by doing so.
I found different examples of body shaming in the media, such as comments made on social media, such as ‘’he let himself go’’ and ‘’disgusting, ugly woman.’’ Why, in 2022 are we still commenting on people’s bodies and how they present themselves?
My aim for my project is to show people that it is okay to be different, to have bodies that do not always conform to the cultural stereotypes of the ‘model’. I want to encourage everyone to be proud of themselves, their bodies and who they are.
Bodies that are bigger, have stretch marks and have short or long hair on their bodies should be acceptable, and not instantly judged. My work aims to show others that the people I am photographing do not follow stereotypes and that is okay to do.
In my exhibition I wanted to include images from my previous projects in which I used my photos to raise issues about mental health and how its either poorly addressed or neglected completely.
I chose to exhibit my work in the lift not only because it’s a confined space where you’re more likely to confront the work and really think about the messages that my work portrays but also; because there is a large mirror on the back wall, through which, using the viewers reflection, they will be face to face with how they personally address mental health issues regardless of it being their own or another’s.
I chose to use still-life as a focus for my Final Major Project because I am a creative individual who likes to be in control of my photography. I enjoy self-directed work and love to experiment with different objects. In this project I have created unique pieces of still life that reflects how I see the world. I have taken everyday objects and made them unorthodox. I have done this because I want people to see things differently and provoke people’s creativity. I also want my work to be aesthetically pleasing to my audience.
My project is about horror and supernatural themes and the isolation that comes with grief and death. I challenged myself to explore past the confines of my own creativity to test the boundaries of photography and narrative. My inspiration for leading me into this project is photographer Christopher McKenney who creates striking yet haunting visuals that challenge the eye and mind.
Life can seem so fragmented and disordered at times. These images attempt to explore the idea of mental health and that we all have multiple identities. My images show, as a species we are always flying around and can never rest; hence the aeroplane and bench photographs.
I have included a self-portrait, this is how I see myself, part artist, part photographer and also in a way disembodied. I’ve used photoshop to create these images, using multiple layers to build on the original shot and create a story of daily activities people may go through and also to represent myself as said previously part artist and part photographer.
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
For my FMP I chose to showcase, in an artistic format, the five stages of grief. My aim throughout this project was to bring attention to grief, as it is something that everyone will experience within their lifetime, that I believe, society largely disregards. In an extreme work and economy-oriented society, subjects like grief are heavily neglected and pushed aside. Despite this issue being a universal experience, I believe that workplaces fail to give people adequate amounts of time to healthily process the loss of family and friends.
When coming up with my idea, I decided that I would create a single piece for each stage, so that I could have each image exist on their own or within the set of five. I chose to use an art mannequin as a representation of the person mourning as it leaves a basic and blank reference model of a person that the audience can reflect themselves onto, this then results in making the entire project more relatable.
As well as this, I also took into consideration how complicated I made each piece, as my intention was to leave each image slightly simplistic or ambiguous, so that the viewer may make their own interpretation from the sequence of photos.
During researching different photographers and artists, I found considerable amounts of inspiration for my images. For example, two of the people that inspired me the most throughout my project were Elicia Edijanto and Alex Da Corte. Elicia Edijanto explores themes of loneliness and isolation using black and white watercolour. Edijanto’s pieces are very simplistic, but the viewer can draw a wide variety of meanings from each painting, and this is something that inspired the minimalism of my images.
On the other hand, Alex Da Corte mostly works with creating sets and physical experiences, which is something that inspired my idea to build a stage, to support the idea of my final images being a narrative. Completing this project has allowed me to explore my creativity, while using artistic symbolism to discuss a serious topic, which is something I would like to express more when I progress onto university.
For my FMP, I decided to create photographs that are related to song lyrics. The main reason I chose this theme was to show the personal importance of music. All the artists I chose have helped me overcome hard times within my life through their lyrics, especially during lockdown. I also wanted to incorporate graphic design to draw in the connection between the words and images.
The song lyrics allowed me to be more experimental and explore more unfamiliar aspects within my photography. I believe every song lyric ever made has a different meaning depending on who you have a conversation with, which is the sincere beauty of music; I wanted each viewer to experience and feel something different with each piece.
This truly tested my ability to capture the emotions in my photography and I really enjoyed the challenge that has been presented to me throughout the project. I had to adapt to new aesthetics, new equipment, and new edits for each image, all in an attempt to capture the meaning and feeling that the song lyrics intend to evoke.
My FMP is a collection of images I shot on the theme of growth, I wanted this to be my final project as I feel I’ve not only grown as a person in the last couple of years but very much grown as a photographer in terms of skill and preferred styles/ aesthetics in my work.
My main aim behind this project was to really explore how people form emotional attachments to places, how they can act as triggers and how well you get to know a person through a series of images.
My inspiration for this project was mainly inspired by Geloy Conception and his work for Vogue titled “Things you wanted to say but never did’’. The editing of the image to leave only a silhouette is something that really captivated me and is something I decided to put into this work. I did this because I think removing the subject of your image is a very bold thing to do; I also decided on this style of work as I don’t usually heavily edit my work in this way and wanted to explore something new.
