My final project is about people’s most listened to and/or favourite song during lockdown. The multiple lockdowns over the past year ended up leaving everyone feeling isolated and anxious. My models gave me a song that they have either listened to a lot during the past year or songs that gave them comfort. I then created a series of images based on the lyrics in these songs including songs by artists such as Taylor Swift and Fall Out Boy. For everyone music was a way to escape the ‘real world’ and the stresses that came with the current events. In one survey it mentioned that 91% of participants said that music helped them feel a sense of escapism. Music is all around us, but we’ve never realised how important and useful it is to uplift us, as well as to distract us, until we were made to ‘stay safe’ and to ‘stay at home’.
I wanted to make my final project about something current and relevant, I think we can all agree that there is nothing bigger or more relevant right now than the Covid-19 lockdowns. So that is exactly what I have based my project upon. The title of my project is ‘What It Felt Like’ because that is exactly what it represents, what it felt like to live during lockdown. We have all had to adapt to a new way of life over the last year and now, finally, it looks like we may be moving past all of this. So with the UK lockdowns soon to end, I felt now was a great time to look back on the bizarre year we have all had to endure and to try and encapsulate some of the key moments from that time, that we can all relate to.
Ornstein (1975) describes the eye as the most important avenue of personal consciousness’ and it is estimated that 90% of the information we receive about the external world reaches us through the eyes.’
My project is about students. I feel through the coronavirus pandemic we have been ignored and pushed aside, left to deal with college/school on our own, forced to adapt quickly to online learning, which has been difficult for many people. For my project I have photographed a range of different students, showing how different and individual we all are. I find that eye photos are quite uncomfortable to look at, but they’re so interesting at the same time, you can’t look away from them. With this project I want to force you to look at students for once – don’t ignore us, we are all talented individuals, we should be treated as such. Don’t look away from us.
I have always had a passion for documenting emotions through my work. As well as this I also enjoy using photography to explore my interests in fashion. This was something that I wanted to portray in in my final project. I have taken inspiration from the album “all distortions are intentional” by the band Neck Deep, who explore the concept of the word sonder meaning all people have their own complex life paths.
Take yourself on an immersive experience through my exhibition as you’re surrounded by my work in an eerie atmosphere.
For the first time in history, men are more likely to kill themselves than each other. In 2012, about 56 million people died throughout the world. Of those, 120,000 were killed in war, 500,000 in crime. Whereas 800,000 committed suicide, more than all war and crime combined! (Homo Deus, A Brief History of Tomorrow, Yuval Noah Harari, 2016). The title of my FMP is Men’s Mental Health. I aimed to focus on the stigma that is still around, attempting to explore the important issues relating to men being taught to never show emotions because it’s “unmanly”. I hope to raise awareness and encourage a debate around changing this problem but also looking further into the idea of constantly comparing women’s mental health against men’s, with phrases such as “stop crying like a girl”, “you hit like a girl”, “man up” and so many more. This behaviour and conditioning encourages only women and young girls to be able to ‘wear their hearts on their sleeves’, through being taught it’s okay to show emotion and it’s okay to not be okay. Why can’t it be the same for men and young boys growing up? It should be equal. 1 in 4 men are affected by mental health problems or illnesses and male suicides have consistently accounted for approximately three quarters of all suicides. I feel that the media and in particular social media is a very toxic place at the moment and it makes young people of today view themselves and their bodies in a negative way – constantly comparing themselves – which can then go onto create all sorts of mental health problems including anxiety and depression.
The title of my final major project is “we are the youth of the modern age.” In this project I have explored the lifestyles and culture of the youth of 2021. I have done this by photographing people who are of a similar age to me. I have also included my collection of candid images that I have been creating on a disposable camera whilst out with friends over the past two years. For this exhibition I have created a bedroom installation, heavily inspired by the work of Tracey Emin. For this I wanted to recreate the bedroom of a teenager, so I have chose objects that not only compliment my images well but also are things that would be found in mine or a typical teenagers bedroom. Throughout the installation, my images are dotted about on objects such as T-shirts, mouse-mats, posters and mugs.
My project ‘Divided’ aims to confront notions of mental health disorders specif ically those such as MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder) and DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder). The mental health disorders are characterised by two or more distinct personalities living with in one body. This disorder is usually diagnosed when people have previously experienced traumas in their life. The disorder is commonly accompanied by memory gaps in which the host doesn’t realise they are living as another persona. When experiencing this it can
confuse the host. This confusion is what I wanted to communicate in this display. The work that I have created shows a variety of di erent faces that have been collaged to make one unique piece. Even my work is compiled using a variety of di erent subjects. It represents how there is multiple personalities in one body. The aim is to confuse the viewer, which directly relates to how someone who su ers from this disorder may feel. The deadpan style of portraiture creates a photographic identity similar to those used in passports and for driver’s licences.
