For the exam project we have been given the title of truth, fantasy or fiction. I really like this title as I love making more surrealist style images and I feel that I will be able to experiment more with my photographs and my ideas.There is a wide variety of projects that I feel that I would be able to come up and feel that I will be able to make a strong response. Artists that come to mind are Christopher Mckenney and Brian Oldham who I studied back in the summer when artist Tom Pope came over as the photographer in residence for the Jersey Archive. I really like the idea of revisiting this work and adding and developing it as I feel that there was so much that I could do with this style and I want to experiment further with it. This is an exciting exam title for me as I really do like staging images and bringing narrative into my work. I want to make another film for this project and am starting to come up with some different ideas to incorporate with making a film as well as an effective book. I have ideas for both a short film and a photo book and have a clear subject/movement for my project in mind. I want my work to stand out but I also want to venture into a different style and a different topic. One word/phrase that I picked up on was ‘en plein air‘ which actually means to paint directly in nature. This is where artists use nature to create their work. For example, an artist will go straight to the natural world and paint in the environment or a photographer will go out into the world to make their images instead of staying in a studio. I really liked this idea and want to use this for my own work and to go to proper locations to make for more interesting photographs. This also reminds me of the work of Tom Pope and how he uses his environment and nature to make his images and takes inspiration from the world around him in his performances. Another link that can be made to ‘en plein air‘ is artist Claude Monet who made paintings of natural landscapes while in that landscape. His work is almost poetic and really stand out to me and I really like his work. When reading more on the exam paper I noticed the words ‘illustrative or political’ meaning behind them, which I really like the idea of and want my work to be strong and have proper meaning behind it. I think that this is really interesting and it does make me think more about my project and want to better myself to generate powerful meaning.

My Thoughts | Truth

‘The quality or state of being true.’ This is the dictionary definition of the word truth. To me truth means being honest, it isn’t fake or misleading it is simple real. I feel that this is a really great topic as there is so much you can talk about and so many ideas can be explored through this. Truth is something very powerful, by telling the truth we are somewhat exposing ourselves or others, We don’t twist the reality of things or lie to get what we want. When thinking about truth I also came up with the idea of possibly finding the truth behind something, so investigating into something more and finding out more about it to bring a certain topic to light. This topic is more on the side of documentary to me as I feel that you are able to make more journalistic images or those that tell a true story. I want to tell a story about our society and to make it true to life.

The options for this title are endless. With fantasy you are able to venture into your own world, to create images that are unusual. I feel that this particular topic would give you the chance to make different and creative images without having to worry about whether or not it is realistic or if it is true to the real story like a documentary. When I think of fantasy I think of new worlds, ones that surrealist photographers create to make their photographs. I feel that this word really embodies surrealism in photography as through this we are able to create new and exciting worlds that others wouldn’t even be able to imagine. I want to take inspiration from fiction artists including Linda Blacker with her fascinating staged images creating different and unique personas within her work.

Fiction could be anything from fairy tales to movies. It is similar to fantasy and the opposite of truth. Fiction is not real, it has been made up. I like this as I feel you would be able to make staged images based off of films or fairy tales as well as possibly myths or legends. When I think of fiction Cindy Sherman comes to mind as a photographer who stages all of her images from images she creates in her head. I like the idea of this topic and feel that again there is so much you would be able to create from it. I feel that this particular word would suit more for staged images made from films or fairy tales. I also think that photographer Linda Blacker would fit into this category as a lot of her work reminds me of fairy tales and is from a completely fictional world.

I think that I want to combine all of the words together within my project as I feel that they will all be appropriate. A lot of my work will be focused on the word fantasy and creating surrealist images but behind my work will be truth about our society and how we live as human beings. I want this project to stand out and to be different from anything that I have done before. I don’t want it to become repetitive or boring for my spectators to see a similar kind of thing all the time. I really want to venture out in this project and try something that I only touched about back in summer. This will be an exciting opportunity for me to create and also to experiment a bit more with models, locations and in editing. I have in mind a photo book idea and really want to make it as professional as possible. Over the next couple of weeks I want to work towards this photo book and making strong enough images for it to be effective. I want to focus my work on nature and the natural world and how the human race is effecting that.