Photography is the best medium for remembering, conveying meaning and bearing witness to people and places, family and friends, past and present. Today we are bombarded by digital images. Nearly two-hundred years since its inception and despite its recent convergence with the world of high tech, photography remains our most important memory making medium. The family album has effectively become the family hard-drive or social media account. I attempt to re imagine and reconsider family photographs in a personal and contemporary way. So for my project I wanted to so how much environments change why we have to preserve these memories and print them so the future generations can look into the past and bond over the images with their family’s like I have spend with mine creating happy memories that will never be forgotten. I believe that these memories are already fading away so I would like for other to see this exhibition and realise the importance of this beautiful part of personal history.
The name of my project is ‘The Seven Deadly Sins’ which I wanted to create with a slight twist by also including fairy tale characters. We grow up on hearing fairy tales about these perfect characters with great qualities, pureness and innocence, and the villains with qualities that are seen as bad or something we should be ashamed of, even though they are normal human behaviours that each of us at some point in our lives experience. I wanted to show that it is normal to have ‘bad’ habits or qualities and that nobody is perfect. Not even fairy tale characters.
Can you guess which character is which sin? (Wrath, Greed, Gluttony, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Envy)
My intentions for my project was to raise awareness and reduce stigma surrounding mental health. Many of us have or know someone who has struggled with a mental illness, but we still avoid the topic or shy away from the conversation. Through my images, I narrated feelings of anxiety and isolation as well as also showing images associated with seeking help. I wanted the images to be something that people can feel connected to, and like someone has visually shown how they’ve felt. I wanted people to know that they aren’t alone, and that their mental health matters.
To challenge myself I wanted to create a series including artefacts from different Wars. I aimed to show that war was unnecessary. Throughout the series, I aimed to continuously show themes of peace. With a minimalistic approach to the work, the soft lighting relates directly to the sensitivity I aim to convey. My images have a simple aesthetic. War embodies chaos and I wanted the complete opposite for this series. I want my audience to feel at peace when viewing this work, this represents how there could have been a peaceful solution that would have saved the world from so much despair.
My creative independent project title is Perspective. The project includes topics such as feminism, gender stereotypes, toxic masculinity, and LGBTQ+ community. Raising awareness about these topics is important in my eyes as it needs more recognition. I have included macro photography within my portraiture work as this is what I started with and it developed into my project. I want to raise awareness about these serious subjects. I want to show the negative stereotypes of some of these topics and show that we need to change our views on this and start looking for the positives.
A-Level Photography allows learners the opportunity to express themselves creatively while exploring ideas and concepts that are personal and meaningful. This is clearly demonstrated across the wonderful work created by this years A-Level cohort. I could not be prouder of the work and achievements made by each member of the Photography group.
Learners often choose issues within society as a means to connect their Photography to an audience. The course consistently challenges them to problem solve and improve both quality and concept as they progress. This ultimately prepares them for both industry and Higher Education.
Industry-standard software and equipment are embedded throughout the course to again support progression, exploring the Creative Cloud Adobe Suite with programs such as Photoshop and Lightroom for image editing, along with InDesign to create their stunning portfolios and project work. To allow for a deeper understanding of photography, learners are encouraged to work with both modern and traditional techniques such as darkroom and Cyanotypes. This 2-year programme builds theoretical and practical knowledge to allow our learners the creative means to express themselves through Photography.
I hope you enjoy exploring the work from this year’s Photography learners.
Simon Morris, A-Level Photography Tutor, Dudley Sixth
Project Title: Every Day (The Life of a Key Worker in the Pandemic)
My investigation combines the principles of Cinematography and Photography to build a narrative exploring the repetitive every day feeling through the national lockdowns.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic being a heavy influence in my work along with the entire country being locked inside their homes. I wanted to investigate every day life and show beauty in the mundane. I followed a key worker and used my developing cinematic style to create a 52-piece narrative titled “Every Day” to show the life of a key worker in the pandemic.
My project explores differing mental illnesses and their perception through abstraction and distortion, both from the perspective of people personally affected by mental conditions, and from an outsider’s perception of them. I predominantly experimented with overlaying semi-transparent photographs, projection depicting self-harm and utilising adjusting hues and oversaturation to make colours within the photos uncharacteristically vibrant. Through my heavily edited shoots I have expressed both the stigmatization of mental illness in the media and the effects these illnesses have on a perception’s of both themselves and the world around them.
My final pieces are replicative of how many mental illnesses are often overgeneralized into an amalgamation of symptoms, expressed through the collaged layering of many different dramatized edits.
I am going on to study Fine Art at Norwich University of the Arts.
Within my project I explored the theme of Artificial lighting. Using a wide variety of lighting techniques I explored the ability photographers have to dramatise their work focusing on portraiture and the application of colour. After exploring a range of techniques I refined the use of flash lighting and coloured gels in my work concluding with projections of my own manipulated images in order to respond to this concept.
Furthermore, I was intrigued to look more closely into the way artificial lighting can having drastic impacts on the aesthetic of an image, as well as the way different types of lighting can differ to each other when working with a model.
