Id, ego and superego 

The id is the most basic part of the personality, and wants instant gratification for our wants and needs. If these needs or wants are not met, a person becomes tense or anxious.

• Present from birth
• Unconscious
• Primary component of personality

The ego deals with reality, trying to meet the desires of the id in a way that is socially acceptable in the world. This may mean delaying gratification, and helping to get rid of the tension the id feels if a desire is not met right away. The ego recognizes that other people have needs and wants too, and that being selfish is not always good for us in the long run.

• Deals with reality
• Both conscious and unconscious
• Ensures impulses can be expressed in the right way

The superego develops last, and is based on morals and judgments about right and wrong. Even though the superego and the ego may reach the same decision about something, the superego’s reason for that decision is more based on moral values, while the ego’s decision is based more on what others will think or what the consequences of an action could be.

• Makes judgement’s
• Starts around the age of five
• Moral standards – right and wrong

Francesca Woodman 

Francesca Woodman is an American photographer who photographs a perception of herself. Many of her pieces of work include black and white photographs of herself or of other female role models. Many of the photographs are of her nude, in surrounding which she is merging herself into, the photographs are often blurry and her face is obscured. She started photographing at the age of 13. Her photographs are usually 8 by 10 inches which is designed to produce an ‘intimate’ experience between the viewer and the photograph itself. Many of her photographs are untitled and are known only by a location and date, after she killed herself at the age of 22 in 1981 and left behind a substantial amount of work.  Today Francesca’s work still creates a lot of critical attention.

I chose to research Francesca Woodman because her work links in with the theory of id, ego and superego and the idea of exploring different personalities and the perception you have of yourself and the perception that others have of you. Her work also includes elements of surrealism for example photographing unrealistic scenarios. The blurriness in the photographs make her have a ghostly presence in the photos both these things linking to the idea of fantasy.  I think this is an intriguing topic to luck at under the themes truth and fiction. However it is hard to portray through photography. Her work also includes elements of surrealism for example photographing unrealistic scenarios.

Picasso and the Art World

Pablo Picasso was one of the most dominant and influential artists of the first half of the twentieth century. Associated most of all with pioneering Cubism, alongside Georges Braque, he also invented collage and made major contributions to Symbolism and Surrealism. Below displays some of the major influence Braque had on Picasso, as their styles are easily suggested as similar.

He saw himself above all as a painter, yet his sculpture was greatly influential, and he also explored areas as diverse as printmaking and ceramics. Finally, he was a famously charismatic personality; his many relationships with women not only filtered into his art but also may have directed its course, and his behavior has come to embody that of the bohemian modern artist in the popular imagination. This ‘imagination’ fits in well with how love was a greatly prominent part of Picasso’s artwork. This became clear during much of Picasso’s work as the female’s pictures in his series’s dictated the perception of women of the time, contextualising his representation of art.

Picasso first emerged as a Symbolist-influenced by the likes of Edvard Munch and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. This tendency shaped his so-called “Blue Period”, in which he depicted beggars, prostitutes, and various urban misfits, and also the brighter moods of his subsequent ‘Rose Period”.

Also, there where a confluence of influences from Paul Cézanne and Henri Rousseau to archaic and tribal art, encouraging Picasso to lend his figures more weight and structure around 1906. And they ultimately set him on the path towards Cubism, in which he deconstructed the conventions of perspectival space that had dominated painting since the Renaissance. These innovations would have far-reaching consequences for practically all of modern art, revolutionizing attitudes to the depiction of form in space.

Picasso’s immersion in Cubism also eventually led him to the invention of collage, in which he abandoned the idea of the picture as a window on objects in the world, and began to conceive of it merely as an arrangement of signs that used different, sometimes metaphorical means, to refer to those objects. This too would prove hugely influential for decades to come.

Picasso and ‘Truth’

Picasso claims that Art is not considered ‘truth‘ or more in-fact ‘earnest‘. Art in Picasso’s world is considered a ‘lie‘ that makes people envisaging Picasso’s art ‘truth‘. Margritte’s painting ‘La Trahison des Images‘, in which he painted a picture of a pipe with the words “C’est n’est pas une pipe“, goes some way towards an explanation. Art is not considered a reality but can however, examine and model reality.

Picasso uses art to use as a mask to cover up usual perceptions of  everyday life. Picasso famously said:

“We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realise truth”.

Picasso’s outlook of art explores the varied perception of the reader on his pieces. This outlook on an audience gives Picasso a reason to illustrate subjects like love in a way people perceive the truth of an artwork.

The Cubist Revolution: Picasso’s Strife to change Art History

Picasso discussed in an interview with The Guardian 

Art journalist Jonathan Johns explores Picasso’s art in the light of truth and the beauty behind his ideology.

“Picasso’s eyes perceived the infinite complexity of life”.

Within the interview, Jones focuses on the evolution of Picasso as an artist, and the way he has set his own guidelines to work against. His first work, “Brick Factory at Tortosa“, is “an experiment in how brutally you can reduce, simplify, solidify and abstract forms and still produce a picture that is not simply recognisable, but profoundly full of life.” It is a study in dryness and heat. The factory’s buildings and chimney offer Picasso perfect, geometric shapes to play with. Picasso’s simplistic form of art

Picasso and Braque 

Brick Factory in Tortosa was a quiet moment during the revolution, and Picasso, together with Braque, moved rapidly towards the style that is already being nicknamed (in a review of Braque’s new paintings in spring 1909) “cubism“. The word denotes a way of seeing already manifest in Picasso’s brick factory: “the systematic transformation of surfaces into planes of colour, their jarring arrangement in rough geometries, the harshness of palette“. As a reader you can see very clearly how much Picasso and Braque owed to their discovery of Cézanne’s landscapes. The brick factory in the heat has the toughness of Cézanne’s Provencal rocks – but it has a 20th-century quality that makes it different. Factories had only been acknowledged by 19th-century landscape painters as smokestacks in the distance. Picasso looks the modern world squarely in the eye.

In the months to come he and Braque will bring their revolution further into the open and by 1910 Picasso will be painting such masterpieces as his Portrait of Kahnweiler.

It is the centenary of Picasso’s factory and of the naming of cubism – a centenary marked by a new triumph for Picasso, as for the first time he gets an exhibition at London’s National Gallery. Picasso: Challenging the Past will concentrate on his fascination – full of rivalry and respect – with the great tradition of European art. I’m looking forward to it but I hope it won’t make him too respectable. Picasso was a rebel and it will be a long time before his art settles into history enough for him to be caught in the toils of that horrible expression, “old master”. Picasso’s eyes stare into our time and challenge us. Where’s our cubist revolution?

Picasso discussed in a talk with Austin Kleon, author of “Steal Like An Artist” and a few other books.

Amongst the prevailing types of theories which attempt to account for the existence of love, there are however many types hich define these theories. For example: psychological theories showing the vast majority of which love is considered to be “healthy behaviour“; there are evolutionary theories that hold love as part of the process of natural selection; there are spiritual theories that may, for instance consider love to be a ‘gift from God‘; there are also theories that consider love to be an ‘unexplainable mystery‘, very much like a mystical experience or what can be described as a philosophical theory.

Philosophical Theories 

“The love of all-inclusiveness is as dangerous in philosophy as in art”  – George Santayana

The philosophy of love is within depths of social philosophy and ethics that attempts to explain the nature of love. The philosophical investigation of love includes the tasks of distinguishing between the various kinds of personal love, asking if and how love is or can be justified, asking what the value of love is, and what impact love has on the autonomy of both the lover and the beloved.

Many different theories attempt to explain the nature and function of love. The explanation of love  to a person however can be ceased as difficult to someone who wouldn’t know what the concept is and what it feels like, therefore making the theoretical philosophy a concept in itself.

There were many attempts to find the equation of love. One such attempt was by Christian Rudder, a mathematician and co-founder of online dating website “OKCupid“, one of the largest online dating sites. The mathematical approach was through the collection of large data from the dating site. Another interesting equation of love is found by in the philosophical blog ‘In the Quest of Truth’. Love is defined as a measure of selfless give and take, and the author attempted to draw a graph that shows the equation of love. Aggregately, dating resources indicate a nascent line of variables effectively synchronising couples in naturally determined yearning.

Rene Margritte is a Belgium surrealist artist who is well known for his thought provoking images often of normal objects in an unusual context, he gave familiar objects a new and different meaning .  Context defines the meaning of a work of art. Rene’s work influenced pop, minimal and conceptual art.

One of his most well known pieces of work is a painting of a pipe.  The painting is of a model pipe with a plain background that looks as though it is a model for a tobacco store advertisement. Bellow the pipe it says  “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” which literally translated means this is not a pipe.  Rene argued that it was not a pipe it was a painting of a pipe . When he  was once asked about this image, he replied that of course it was not a pipe, just try to fill it with tobacco. This links in with one of Picasso’s famous quotes, “we all know that Art is not truth. Art is a like that makes us realise the truth.” This quote and Rene’s work makes us question the difference between reality and representation.

Magritte painted The Treachery of Images when he was 30 years old. These images are still relevant today are currently on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art .They fit in with the exam title Truth, Fantasy or Fiction because they make us questions the reality of art and how much fiction is involved in the process of making a piece of work. The difference between a real pipe and a painting of a pipe and reality of them or any other object is something that I hadn’t thought about yet, however from researching this in more detail I have come to the conclusion that all Art including photography is a representation or an interpretation of something no matter how alike it looks compared to the real thing.

Truth – Definition: ‘the quality or state of being true.’                   – True: in accordance with fact or reality.

For many people, truth is something that can be defined as a fact. For example, we know that China having the biggest population is the truth as it can be classed as  a fact. But what constitutes something to be a fact? Can certain people perceive truth and fact as something completely different and interpret it to be fiction?

The BBC defines a fact as “something that can be checked and backed up with evidence.” This can be seen as the truth, but what if to some people the evidence provided isn’t sufficient enough to make them believe something is a fact?

Fantasy – Definition: ‘the faculty or activity of imagining things, especially things that are impossible or improbable.’

Most of us to think of fantasy as something that is impossible to happen in our lives, and features things that we’d never be able to see/experience. Although this is what I believe to be true, a lot of people have shown that they can make their fantasy a reality. For example, many musicians, athletes, actors etc. all dreamed of the fantasy of being able to pursue their dream career, and now they are living it. So in perspective they were able to turn something that was once and dream and fantasy and transform it into their reality.

Fiction – Definition: ‘invention or fabrication as opposed to fact.’

Fiction in essence is something that began as a way for people to express themselves from the very early days of basic story telling to today’s multi million holly-wood films. It’s something that was created for people to think of different ideas and make things up while also keeping people safe and not scared as it was something that is not true in reality. Such as trolls living underneath bridges in fairy tales,  they are not real, but sometimes fiction made people believe they were.

With this project I’d first like to research photographers and artists that look at these themes of truth, fantasy and fiction, and how they have their views on what they perceived to be the truth and fiction in reality, and how we can bring these fantasy ideas to life through photography and art.

A good way of explaining my thoughts on the images of my family is the work of René Magritte.

Magritte was a Belgian surrealist artist, who’s work shows ordinary objects with an unusual context. The one image which I specifically thought of with my project was ‘La trahison des images’ (The Treachery of Images), in which he has painted an image of a pipe, with the words “Ceci n’est pas un pipe” (This is not a pipe). This image demonstrates a similar way of how I have been looking at the digitalised slides.

Whilst Magritte had painted an image of a pipe, it is not actually a pipe, and when Magritte was once asked about this image, he replied that of course it was not a pipe, just try to fill it with tobacco.

In a similar way, whilst these photos are of my mum, they aren’t my mum as I know her now. These images are also not how my mum would remember those moments, because she was seeing the other perspective, looking at the person taking the image, which is a perspective I will never be able to see.

These photographs also don’t allow me to know how the people within the pictures felt at that time, what was happening in my mums life at that time, who was she friends with? What had she been doing in school? Not being able to know these things makes it very difficult to build up a picture of what my mum, and all of my relatives, were like at that time.

Allow the unconscious to express itself

Dictionary definition: Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which one proposes to express, either verbally, in writing, or by any other manner, the real functioning of thought. Dictation of thought in the absence of all control exercised by reason, outside of all aesthetic and moral preoccupation.

Surrealism was a  revolutionary cultural art movement starting in the 1920’s. It is best know for it’s writing and artworks.The leader of surrealism was Andre Breton. The aim of surrealism was to  “resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality.”  The surrealist artists created paintings of everyday objects but turned them into strange creatures which allowed them to express there self’s. Surrealism was created out of Dada which was created in the first world war which originally started in Paris and in the 1920’s it became a global movement and affected literature, film and music. I think that surrealism has a really interesting concept. I like the idea of using photography to try and manipulate and push the boundaries of reality. This links in with the blurred lines between what is real and what is fiction. I like the idea of manipulating real photographs so that they become something of your own fiction/ fantasy.

In a recent study conducted by doctors at Rutgers University in New Jersey, United States bases on  the topic “science behind the love” and reveals that there are ‘three stages‘ behind the process and development of love when experienced in the connection of human beings. Each stage involves different types of chemical reactions within the body (specifically the brain), along with that there are different hormones present in the body helping to excite all these three stages (lust, attraction, and attachment) – separately as well as collectively. This article really helped me understand that there is a science behind love. This, in response, underlines the dual definitions of love as an emotional response and a chemical reaction.

Stage One – Lust 

Definitions:

“An intense sexual desire or appetite”

“an uncontrolled or illicit sexual desire or appetite; lecherousness”

“A passionate or overmastering desire or craving”

Lust is said to be the initial stage of involvement in love. The feel of lust is backed up or instigated by the sexual hormones within the body: Oestrogen and Testosterone are the two basic types of hormones present equally in men and women’s body that excites the feeling of lust within the brain. A limbic processes in the brain in response to lust have health-promoting and stress-reducing potential. In addition, lust, love, and pleasure ensure the endurance of mankind through mating and reproduction. The mating process is a discrete interrelated process initiating attraction.

Stage Two – Attraction

Definition:

“The act, power, or property of attracting”

Second stage of acquiring love is attraction. This phase is said to be one of the beautiful moments of life. This is the phase when a person actually starts to feel the love. His or her impatience for attracting somebody leads to excitement, and the individual is left with no other option but to only think about that specific person. Scientifically, it has been concluded in the study that there are three more sub-stages of attraction that portray drastic changes over the individual’s personality. The three sub-stages of attraction are adrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin.

Adrenaline

Scientists have elaborated that initial symptoms of attraction toward someone involves: Stress response, Increase in adrenalin and cortisol and Attitude reaction.

It has been specified in the study that any person who falls in love will acquire a slight or drastic change in the above stated three factors. Furthermore, attraction is one of the charming effects of life and slight changes in personality are not only natural but are also positive. For this reason, whenever you bump into your admiration, your senses decline and your reactions increase drastically, reason as to why you feel nervous, on-edge, and other emotions resultant of making a good impression on someone.

Dopamine

To follow the theoretical research, a physical experiment was also conducted to prove the veracity of physical evidence. The brains of a new couple struck with love were observed using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRIs). It was genuinely shocking to discover the minds of both male and female have large spikes of neurotransmitter dopamine, a chemical that stimulates the feeling of pleasure within the body. After this discovery, scientists described both the male and female minds as “equally high as if they had taken cocaine or somewhat similar drug” Dopamine is a natural stimulant providing you with ecstasy. The couple furthermore revealed the following facts about themselves from the time they feel in love until the date they were examined: a surge of energy, an observed  significant decrease in appetite, sleep deprivation which has occurred previous to falling in love and that a persons attention has been more focused than ever before. This notion further elaborates on the connection between scientific discovery against the human perception of love. The common phrase ‘love is a drug’, or similar to that, ensures this comparison as a similar instance, as it ha genuinely even proved that each feeling subsides to the same emotion counteracting the admirable feelings of love as what feels like a ‘drug’.

Serotonin

Serotonin has been found as one of the most important chemicals involved for exciting the feeling of love. Serotonin initially diverts your mind and bounds you to think about your lover and nothing else. It becomes a path for the mind. Sandra Langeslag and her colleagues (2012) report serotonin levels are different in men and women when in love. The men in love had lower levels of serotonin, while the women reveal the opposite. The participants in love reported engrossing in thought about their beloved 65% of their day.

Stage 3: Attachment 
When a couple passes through the above two stages of love successfully, the time of bonding with each other becomes powerful. Attachment is a bond helping the couple to take their relationship to advanced levels. It instigates the feeling of bearing children and falling in love with them wholeheartedly.

While investigating the “attachment factor,” scientists discovered two sub-stages involved. The two sub-stages are hormones in the body that attract an individual to retaining the feeling of love with his or her partner. The two hormones, namely, oxytocin and vasopressin are discussed below.

Oxytocin

Oxytocin, also known as “the cuddle hormone,” is one of the most powerful hormones released equally by men and women, especially during orgasm. Oxytocin (OT) formulates the depth of love and forges the attachment the partner. The study was second by another research based on “sexual activities between a couple and the out-comes.” The more a couple opts for sex, the more substantial the bond of attachment is. OT plays a key role in affiliation and attachments in humans.

Similarly, oxytocin helps build a strong bond between a mother and an infant during the time of birth. In addition, it is such a sensitive hormone that it automatically signals the breast to release the milk upon the baby’s sound or touch. OT mediates specific female behaviors such as lactation and parturition. Social interaction with your loved one requires affective “mind reading,” or interpreting faint cues from your partner. Humans infer internal feelings of people from external expressions to predict the other person’s behavior. In a double-blind study of 30 healthy volunteers the administered oxytocin caused a substantial boost in the ability of the individuals to interpret cues from the region of the other person’s eyes. OT improves the interaction between couples by improving this social connection.

Vasopressin

Vasopressin, known as an anti-diuretic, it performs its operation along with the kidney, therefore controlling thirst. This hormone is released in major quantity quickly after sex. Although the brains of women and men are structurally different, they both secrete vasopressin from the pituitary gland. This is a vital role in copulation and partner preference (Hiller, 2004).

Vasopressin is termed as an important hormone to promote long-lasting relationships. A study in Biological Psychology (2012) assessed 37 couples by measuring neuropeptide blood levels. Results reveal vasopressin levels were in relation to the following:

• Interpersonal functioning
• Larger social network
• Greater spousal support
• More attachment security
• Relationship maintenance
• Less negative communication

The Bottom Line on The Science and Psychology of Love
Conclusively, love is seen to be one of the most delightful feelings of our lives. The truth behind the saying saying “love is blind” and “love is a drug” underlines the fact you will never know when your brain will encounter love. A significant number of chemical reactions are involved in instigating lust, attraction, attachment, and love between couples, concluding that science has yet discovered the exact bodily reactions behind the complexity of love.

The articles conclusion is  based upon the above studies: it is clearly said that falling in love involves “many mechanisms and chemicals within the brain” . You simply cannot avoid the sensual reaction of love. The partner doesn’t need to be sublime, sexy, or handsome—the feeling is deeper than a physical tactility.

“Love is a natural muse; you will puzzle over it, dream about it, and be lost in thought.”

Here is a link to the full Article: http://examinedexistence.com/why-we-fall-in-love-the-science-of-love/

Erik Johansson is a photographer from Sweden. He currently lives in Prague, Czech Republic and Sweden. Johansson’s goal in his photographs is to make them look as real as possible. A lot of Johansson’s work focuses on the environment and he also focuses on his editing, making images look surreal and stand out. I find his images look very fictional and are really well executed and most look very realistic with few looking a bit more animated. I find some of his work looks almost too perfect for it to actually be real but I guess that is the point of surrealism photography, it isn’t supposed to show reality. I like that his work comes from a vision that he has created.

Erik Johansson website: http://www.erikjohanssonphoto.com

I do like the work of Johansson and find it really brilliant the way that he edits his images to make them look almost like paintings. I like his style of creating new and strange photographs that don’t really make much sense but when looked at for long enough the meaning behind most of the images becomes clearer. I like that a lot of his focus is on the environment and shows how the human race treats its natural environment, which is something that I want to focus on in my own project. I find that he has some good images and then some amazing images that really show political views and are so powerful compared to some of his others.

This image is so powerful to me. I chose it because it really did stand out to me. It reminds me of how people will cover things up and choose to ignore it in the hopes that it will go away. However, climate change is something that is so prominent in every part of the world with 2015 being the hottest year on record. People don’t want to change their ways and so will just keep it up and try to overlook what is really happening to our natural world. I love this image as it really does embody this and speaks volumes of how we are as a human race. We tend to pretend that everything is fine and stay inside our bubbles without caring about anyone else or the world that we live in because it’s likely to not effect us. I loathe that people think this way and find this image so true and real to what people are actually like. I like the outfit that the model in the image as wearing as he looks like a normal person in his back garden trying to paint his fence or something.

I picked this image next as it goes well with the one above and how it shows climate change. I really like this image as it shows how people are trying to cover it up again and trying to, not fix it but to hide it away so that no one will notice or so that we don’t have to think about the damage that the human race has actually done to the natural world. This image is very artistic and looks almost like a painting. I like the position of the model as she stitches up the ruins that humans have done to the natural environment. This image really embodies what global warming is doing to our natural world and how badly the human race has affected the natural world too. I find this image really interesting and think it makes a huge impact on its spectators, which is something that I want to portray through my own images.

This image is strange and I don’t really get it but I like it. It really is a surrealist image and somehow it is really interesting. I wonder about how the subject is walking through his house from his kitchen through to his bedroom, as you can see through the little details on the floor. I like that the kitchen has that checked floor, which people often associate with a kitchen in a restaurant and so would easily be able to identify that as the subjects kitchen and then the little lamp next to the other door with little pictures and details on the door itself tells us that the room he is heading too is more personalised and most likely his room as he is also in his pyjamas/robe taking a hot drink with him to bed. I don’t quite understand why there is a landscape in the background, as if the man’s house is taking over that natural land and possibly how people are constantly building on top of the natural world. I really like this image anyway as it makes a normal/boring landscape image a whole lot more interesting and intriguing raising questions in the spectators minds making them want to figure out the meaning and what is going on in the image. I really like this as a surrealist image and the idea of making a landscape image more interesting, this is something I want to do in my own work incorporating different layers to make it more interesting for my spectator to look at.

Brian Oldham is a fine art photographer, born in Southern California and is 22 years old. He is currently living and working near Los Angeles. In most of his images Oldham becomes the subject and makes unique surrealist images. I really like Oldham’s style as it really is unique as well as fitting right into the realm of surrealism photographers. His work stands out and he freely experiments with different ways of photographing, which is something that I admire. His work is also very political and has clear messages that really make his work that much more interesting and captivating.

“My passion for creating blossomed at a young age as I experimented with self-portrature, and taught myself how to create freely. I make art to replace the words I cannot fathom; each thread holding a love for all things strange and beautiful. I strive to bring life to the quiet whispers at the back of my mind, to make whole the ghosts of my experiences.” – Brian Oldham

Brian Oldham website: http://brianoldham.format.com/#1

I really love the work of Brian Oldham and have previously looked at his work back in summer while finding inspiration for my performance photography experiments. I find that surrealism photography is often the most exciting, it brings to light the struggles that people are going through and shows the inner workings of photographers brains. I like that it brings out the weird and unusual as so many people tend to conform and just do what they are told and taught to believe in certain things, whereas surrealism challenges that and is so creatives and expressive. I find Oldham’s work so captivating to look at and I like to try and figure out how he made some of his images and how brilliant they are. With Oldham’s work he uses a lot of nature and the natural world which is common for surrealism photographers and something that I find really interesting and want to use within my own project.

Image Analysis

When having a look through some of Oldham’s work I came across a new project that he is in the process of creating that really stood out to me. This particular image is almost like a dig at the Catholic Church on how they do not accept gay people or gay marriage. I love that he has made this image and is making a series based upon this entitled ‘”For the Bible Tells Me So”‘. I love this as it is so true with religion that people often follow it without thinking for themselves and some tend to just passively accept this yet those that are ‘different’ or those people that don’t quite agree or fit in with the general expectations are thrown out and abandoned. I love the quote on the side of this image as it really tells a strong message with the image of Oldham being covered in blood. I feel that this image is powerful and actually quite a risky one. The topic of religion is so controversial and can be a really touchy subject for many people but that doesn’t seem to phase Oldham as he has a clear, strong message that he wants to get across. I love that his work is so politically driven and that he thinks deeper than many others. He wants to make a change in how we as  a society see one another and how we see gay people. The entire miss-en-scene of the photograph is just perfect with the almost halo light circle around his head as well as the subjects blank facial expression. This body of work is really powerful and it really does stand out to me as a excellent piece of artwork. I think that in this image the subject is naked as it shows vulnerability and that it is about the blood falling down his body rather than any sort of clothing that he is wearing. It also makes sense with the quote stating that “If a man lies with a man as he lies with a woman”. It’s as though he has been found while with a man and that he has the blood of the other man all over his body. I think that this image is so powerful and quite risky, which is something that will really stand out. It makes me want to find out more and to see the rest of the images that he creates for this particular project.

I chose this image because it made me think about how he edited it together. My guess is that he made an image of himself jumping in the air and positioned himself that way and in editing he turned the image upside down and turned it black and white. This image really interests me as it is as though he is falling out of the sky and bracing himself for when he hits the ground. I like the simplicity of having just a plain grey background as it allows the spectator to solely focus in on the subject rather than whatever is going on in the background of the image. This image could really mean anything and he could just be floating in the air. I like that the subject is centred in the middle of the square image, he stands out much more against the plain background too. Some part of me feels that this photograph shows conflicting views in his own head and it is sending him spiralling, which is why he is covering his face. The way he covers his face looks almost as if he was sitting that way and trying to take everything in until he was flung into the sky. Oldham’s work often features someone being suspend in the air and almost like they are floating.

This image interests me. The title of this project is ‘Pixels’ and is a work in progress. I like this idea of distorting someones face, it makes it more intriguing for the spectator making them want to find out more about who the person is and what they actually looks like. It brings together the digital age with reality and mixes them together by the distortion of their body and face. It is interesting to see these two image alongside one another, one being completely in focus where the spectator is able to see the subject with the other image being completely pixelated and covered up. I find that these images show how he lives in the real world and how in the digital world he becomes a load of pixels or how his identity doesn’t really matter in the digital world.

Christopher McKenney is a photographer of conceptual art and is from Pennsylvania. He specialises in horror surrealist photography. He also does live concert photography. I really like McKenney’s unique and strange style as it stands out and is really in your face photography. McKenney’s surrealist work creates a sense of dystopia and brings the spectator into a scary, more undesirable world with blood, cloaks and seemingly possessed souls. His work ranges from burning people to self-made ‘ghosts’ covered in blankets. McKenney started making photographs back in 2012 where he first found himself in the woods with a sheet, chair and a frame.

“I like taking away identity when photographing and to leave people thinking. I only make the photos I do to express myself and what other people see or think is up to them, as long as I make them feel anything I’m ok with that.” – Christopher McKenney

Christopher Mckenney website: http://www.christophermckenney.com

Originally when looking for surrealist photographers, I came across McKenney’s and really found them interesting. Back in the summer I took inspiration from this photographer and made my own surrealist images in the woods using a sheet to cover up the body of the model in the images. I found this really fun and different and something that I want to maintain and bring back to in my exam as a key project. McKenney’s work is unusual and, unlike most surrealism photographers work, his work is based on horror and he tends to make more dystopian images. I really like that his work is not something you would expect to see from surrealism photographers and he makes his images for himself and has his own meaning behind them. His images are so different and he allows the spectator to make their own interpretations on what is going on in the images.

This image stood out most to me. It’s a really in your face image that strikes its spectators straight away. I find it so interesting. The story that I create by looking at this image is that possibly an American man who works in an office, shown by the creased suit he is wearing, who is giving up and doesn’t want to carry on with his life anymore. It also makes me think of the American dream and how it might not be so perfect and all that it is cracked up to be with this man wanting to end his life. This image is actually quite sad and makes me wonder what went so wrong in the subjects life that he wants to end it. The composition of this image is also strong as the subject is right in the centre of the image with an equal amount of water beneath him with his reflection being shown clearly. I love McKenney’s work as it is so strange yet thought provoking making me want to find out more about him as a photographer and look at more of his work. To me the gun represents the pressure placed on many people to be successful making the subject feel extremely pressured and out of his depth, which is symbolises in with the water being up to his waist. The background looks dull and gives a more chilling atmosphere to add to the main prop of the gun in the image. I feel that this image is a great visual representation of how people may actually feel and does really embody the style of surrealism photography. Also, the reflection of the subject in the water adds more to the image and makes it that much more captivating, as if the subject could be staring through the flag that is tightly wrapped around his head and staring at his own reflection.

I chose this image next as I thought it linked with the previous one with the American flag.  I really like this image as it is unusual and looks almost as if a ghost is wondering around wearing a sheet. This style of pretending to be a ghost and wearing a sheet has been around for so long with little children dressing up that way for halloween. This images brings a twist to this halloween tradition as beneath the sheet/flag there isn’t a body and it looks as if possibly it is a real ghost with the body being invisible to its spectators. I find this image interesting and want to take inspiration from this for my own work on experimenting with how I edit my photographs and to try and use more unique and different styles of photography. This image is captivating as it is so strange and leaves the spectator guessing as to how the image was made and the message that is being brought across. Something that I also noticed has that the subjects hand is on his heart, which is something people do when their national anthem comes on as a sign of solidarity and being patriotic towards their country. I also think that the detail of this is evident with the American flag being what the subject is hiding under. I find it common in surrealism work for the subjects face to not be a prominent aspect of it and that is usually covered up, which is also show in the work of McKenney where you very rarely see the face of a subject.

I chose this image as I felt the colour of the red went well with the images above. I wanted to analyse this image because the red of the grass is so bizarre and something that you would never ever see normally. I like this as a surrealism image as it is odd and is interesting to look at. It makes me wonder why the person’s arm is spread across the middle of the image almost going all the way across. It makes me want to find out more about the person and why they are in that position. It could be the blood of people who have died either in battle or just in general and the arm represents the human form giving a hint to spectators that the colour red in the grass is actually symbolic of blood. I feel that this is the meaning behind this image as McKenney does specialise in horror surrealism so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was that. I find this image more simplistic than a lot of his images and doesn’t really need much work in terms of props and models as it is just one person’s arm and the red grass could have easily been changed while editing, possibly in PhotoShop.

After looking at the exam booklet I think that I have figured out what I want to focus on. I don’t want to do the same stuff that I have been doing for the personal study as I want to experiment and show different skills through editing and making images. I have looked into Surrealism photographers work and want to follow this path too as it is so unique and interesting to me. I have analysed their work, which has helped me to gain some inspiration for my own work. For this project I will be focusing on the environment and how our society has changed that and that nature is becoming less and less within our world due to corporate buildings and the rise in pollution. I have a few ideas of what I want to do for this and will start experimenting with these ideas and see whether or not they actually work well. I want to make another photo book as I feel that the image ideas that I have will look better in a photo book altogether to tell a larger story with different styles and techniques used in my photographs. I really want my work to stand out and be different, I want it to reflect surrealism photography as well as incorporating landscape photography. I want to experiment with different techniques, shapes and layers. This will be an interesting experiment and I think that it will make a good photo book.

In order to break-down the theme of propaganda into its core aspects, I have researched the six main aspects through which propaganda ca be branched into

1. BANDWAGON

Definition – Pressuring a person to join a organisation/buy a product by implying they will be/feel left out if the don’t.

This concept plays on the natural human desire to feel included and ‘fit in’ because it is safe and secure to do so. By implying someone will feel left out if they do not comply to a certain ideal is a very powerful ad effective means of putting pressure on someone to adhere to the demands of what is being offered

2. TESTIMONIALS

Definition: endorsement of a product/ideology by a well known person, usually a celebratory 

The power, influence or credibility of this endorser will sub-consciously have an effect on the viewer and thus may improve the image of the product. This is seen as one of the most popular forms of Propaganda and large cooperate companies will pay celebrities substantial amounts of money to appear in their commercials.

3. TRANSFER

Definition: the attempt to have people view a product in the same manner that they already view a more familiar subject 

4. GLITTERING GENERALITIES

Definition: links a product to general concepts and ideas that can be seen in a positive way.

This is based on the concept of positive reinforcement.

Presenting something in a positive light makes it more attractive and viable. Therefore a consumer will be more convinced to buy something which is presented in an optimistic light. Advertising usually embeds such themes within the consumer’s sub-conscious.

5. PLAIN FOLKS

Definition: use of common ideals which makes a product look as if it is for everyone 

This method will often be adopted when the product available is for a general target market, such as an advertisement for bread or milk. The person included in the commercial will appear like an ‘average Joe’.

This is done to make the product appear more customer friendly and less intimating. It is welcoming and inclusive!

Appearing simple and easy for everyone to use is an attractive quality which draws the consumer in.

 

DEFINITION

Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.

CORE ASPECTS OF PROPAGANDA

In my view propaganda is essentially a form of information, usually expressed in a creative, artistic manner, which is created with the intent to shape the behaviour and ideas of the person and group of people who view it.

HISTORY OF PROPAGANDA

The concept of propaganda has existed since the beginning of human civilization. Propaganda is effectively a simplistic concept, a way of an authority figure/leader being able to maintain and keep control of the civilian population. Tribal traditions and rituals that have developed throughout history are some of the earliest examples of behavior patterns which would later be developed into deliberate propaganda techniques. The Maori people dating back to the 13th Century for example, have used the  ‘Haka’ war-dance as a way of showing tribal dominance and to defend themselves from tribal threats imposed on them – many of them still practice this for the process of preserving a sense of cultural identity. Such a dance was seen as a way of creating solidarity between those in the tribe. Being part of such a tradition would subsequently boost feelings of  identity needed to secure the stability of the group.

More deliberate and calculated examples of propaganda being used can date back to the Greek period. Greeks had games, the theater, the assembly, the law courts, and religious festivals – all of which organised structures which gave leaders to opportunity for propagandizing ideas and beliefs. Greek playwrights made use of the drama for their political, social, and moral teachings. Another effective way of the Greeks expressing propaganda was oratory – the delivery of speeches.

Through the development of technology – social structures in society and in general the attitudes of the masses – so has the methods of propaganda. The 20th Century has seen the most significant of these changes – politically, socially and technologically. The way propaganda has changed, developed and improved as a result is substantial. The production of distribution of propaganda has gone from small-scale groups in the early 20th Century promoting various political ideals, to mainstream mass cooperation and Governments controlling millions through diligent and extensive techniques.

STATE PROPAGANDA

Propaganda is a broad term and can be used for a variety of purposes. The strongest association usually with propaganda is State Propaganda. This refers to the information that nations and governments send out to the public, with the intention of manipulating support from the masses  – promoting their ideology, or spreading fear amongst the masses to discourage activities which threaten and oppose the core values of the government. State propaganda is usually carefully planned and organised, and is usually associated with the many infamous dictatorships of the 20th century. This is far from the truth however, as many nations during this period deemed as democratic, such as Great Britain and the USA have also been known to conduct vigorous and highly manipulative propaganda campaigns.

ADVERTISING

Commercial Advertising can also be seen as propaganda because the techniques used are very similar to what is usually seen within State/Government propaganda. The concept is the same, as the particular company/organisation will try to endorse a product to the consumer – the equivalent of a Government trying to endorse their ideology.

Commercial advertising is largely a product of the technological changes of the latter 20th Century and 21st Century to date. The rise in digital advertising and endless possibilities of social media has advanced and improved the ways in which products are advertised.

Advertising uses multimedia techniques to promote products, services and ideas. Although usually factually correct, advertising is usually exaggerated and embellished to make the product look appealing and attractive to an audience. Advertising is very much based on creating hype and sensationalism – persuading individuals it is in their interests to invest in that certain products, thus persuading the consumer to change their spending habits to fit such an trend.

SUMMARY

Propaganda is used to control and manipulate people in buying into an ideology or product either through positive reinforcement (encouragement) or negative re-reinforcement (creating and playing on people’s fears).

Propaganda is incredibility powerful to the extent it can brainwash people to accept and embrace even the most extreme and hateful philosophies.

The concept of Propaganda has existed for thousands of years  – however the development of technology along with developments of societal structures has dramatically advanced and sophisticated the methods and techniques of Propaganda.

Propaganda can be a force for both good and bad.

Examination dates:  Tue 3rd – 6th May ~ 10 hrs controlled test over 2 days

The exam title this year is Truth, Fantasy or Fiction, I really like this title because they are in themselves broad topics which means that there are a wide variety of projects that could be done in response. I also think that it is a really interesting title because I think it will allow you to be much more creative, look deeper into the subject and use your imagination to a certain extent.

Truth:   the quality or state of being true.

Photography is known for being able to capture and represent an accurate likeness of the subject being photographed. Roland Barthes wrote that a photograph could be a ‘certificate of presence’. However this is not so much the case today, today photographers are able to manipulate photographs when they are taking them for example: only portraying one side of the story.  Photographs can also be manipulated after they have been taken through editing. Photographs are also used to record and keep evidence of events, however a photograph is only a second of what is going on at the moment in time which reduces it credibility. Today, I consider documentary photography to be the closest to ‘ true photography’ because it’s a form of photography that is used to ‘document’ events and people in everyday real life situations and documentary photographers follow a code of conduct to maintain the truth in their photographs and manipulation of documentary photography is frowned upon.

http://www.vivianmaier.com/ – documentary photographer

Fantasy: the faculty or activity of imagining impossible or improbable things.

Fantasy photography is the complete opposite of ‘truth photography’. Fantasy will allow you to be more creative and create photographs of things which many not be real and it would require more abstract thinking. When I think of fantasy photography I associate it to surrealism which is a subject I have researched before and found interesting. Surrealism allows you to experiment with different ideas and push the boundaries of reality.  I think that Fantasy also links in with the work that we did Tom Pope because he includes some elements of surrealism such as  the photograph of him standing in mid air. Surrealism was originally started to help “resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality.”   I like the concept of what is reality and dream and blurring these two worlds together could result in strong photographs.

http://www.manraytrust.com/ – surrealist photographer

Fiction:  something that is invented or untrue.

Fiction is often associated to a novel which is written based on imagination rather than history or facts.  Therefore I think that fiction is very similar to fantasy because they both incorporate the unreal. However I think Fiction relates more to fairy tales and myths although it does incorporates some elements of surrealism in it . For this part of the title I think that you could create something which doesn’t exist and again blur the lines between fiction and reality. I found a photographer who I think uses fiction in a subtle way. David Hilliard is an American photographer. He mainly works with panoramic photographs. He draws inspiration from his personal life and those around him for his subject matter. Many of the scenes are staged, evoking a performance and a middle ground between fact and fiction.

http://www.davidhilliard.com/ – David Hilliards website.

Surrealism photography is known as a new form of reality and is heavily influenced by dreams. This is the world that we create in our minds, often we come up with these ideas when we are sleeping when we have no control over and often don’t make any sense. Surrealism is the unconscious mind and a world that we are able to share with others that they would never be able to imagine. The movement of surrealism was created in Paris 1924. There are so many surrealist photographer including Man Ray, Christopher Mckenney, Brian Oldham, Dora Maar and Eric Johansson. I love this style of photography as we are able to express ourselves in new and unusual ways that most people might see as odd yet they become poetic and fascinating to look at. One surrealist photographer that I really love the work of is Christopher Mckenney, it is so unusual and different to many other artists work I’ve seen before. I also really like the work of Brian Oldham as his work too is strange yet fascinating to look at.

Christopher Mckenney website: http://www.christophermckenney.com

Brian Oldham website: http://brianoldham.format.com/#1

Surrealism | My Thoughts

I really like the style of photographs that artists create within surrealism. They are so interesting and unique. I love that we are able to create new worlds and enter new realms that we would usually not be able to conjure up in our own heads. These fantasy worlds are constantly changing and developing bringing in different types of utopia and dystopia into our minds. I love that surrealist worlds can be utopian and something that people aspire to want to be in and think of along with the opposite world of dystopia and how we are able to create imaginary worlds that are undesirable. Through this movement I want to be able to carry on my work created back in the summer and make an effective photo book from it. I want my work to evoke meaning and to generate a sense of intrigue with my spectators. I feel that surrealism is such a fun movement  and you are really able to create pretty much anything that you want within the photographic world.

Tableau photography is also known as narrative photography. It’s a staged set of images that tell a story to the spectator. Famous photographers include Cindy Sherman and Gregory Crewdson. I really like the idea of tableau photographs as through this you are able to create photos that you made up in your head and be able to become a whole new persona. This really interests me and I really like the style and work of many tableau photographers as well as many surrealism photographers. Through tableau photography we are able to tell new and interesting stories, either ones that are already around like myths, films or fairy tales or we can create new worlds and bring new ideas to life. I like to focus my own staged photographic work on movements such as feminism and show the stereotypes that are faced with women. I feel that tableau really benefits movements and photographers are able to express political messages that they feel strongly about.

Cindy Sherman website: http://www.cindysherman.com

Gregory Crewdson website: http://www.gagosian.com/artists/gregory-crewdson

I love tableau photography and find it so interesting, especially from artists such as Cindy Sherman. Tableau photography allows photographers to generate a sense of narrative and gives them the opportunity to tell a story about anything they please. I feel that they are able to become new personas and create new and interesting tales. This style is very thought provoking and I feel that photographers are able to incorporate movements within their work. I want my work to provoke change and to change my spectators view on the world and make them want to make a difference. There is always opportunity within the photographic world to make something new and exciting. I feel that so many photographers are able to freely express themselves through their work and successfully stage their images to create unique and interesting images.

Documentary photography is what I see as true photography and is supposed to be series of images that tell a true tale about certain individuals lives. It is a way of putting aspects of different peoples lives on record and maintaining them in photographs. Documentary photography portrays real lives and brings to light some important issues that faces our society and those living in other countries. Journalists are some of the users of documentary photography as their work is seen as factual and there is also a code of conduct that journalists go through to ensure that they are telling the truth. I really enjoy seeing documentary photography as it speaks volumes to actually see how the rest of the world is and what people are going through and comparing it to my own life and privilege. I love the documentary work of so many photographers and have recently discovered the work of Andrea Bruce who makes some really interesting photographs. Much like the extraordinary work of James Nachtwey whose work is truly moving.

Andrea Bruce website: http://www.andreabruce.com

James Nachtwey website: http://www.jamesnachtwey.com

Documentary | My Thoughts

I feel that documentary photography is really important as it shows people in different parts of the world what is going on elsewhere. I find it so important in news and maintaining to true stories and sharing peoples extraordinary lives. I feel that documentary photography speaks volumes when done in the right way and shows the world hard-hitting issues of the world and allows spectators to make change and to think more openly. I think that I will take inspiration from the realm of documentary photography and the idea of truth telling. I want to use this in my own work and show my spectators the reality of what society is like and how it is effective everyone within it. I find that documentary photography can be so powerful and really make a difference in the world provoking change and making spectators want to find out more and to make a proper change to help those less in need and to change the way we work as societies, governments and policies.

After receiving the title for this exam project I decided it would be best to break down all three of these concepts into their basic definitions

These three can be defined as the following …….

TRUTH = something which can be considered true/in accordance with fact or reality

FANTASY = something which is described, but is made up and never happened, usually seen as something impossible or improbable

FICTION = something which is described, but is made up and never happened

My Initial Thoughts ….

The Exam Project Handout gives a few paragraphs outlining different ways these topics can be interpreted. Straight away I was drawn to the final paragraph ……

“Written propaganda has been used to influence and steer public opinion with many political and religious movements claiming to possess the only true path or philosophy. Each movement has commissioned artists to embellish texts and illustrate their beliefs for public consumption and maximum impact. The communist and fascist posters of the early 20th century exemplify the power of this form of communication”

I find the theme of propaganda to be very interesting because I enjoy history a lot and have studied a bit about the role propaganda has had in shaping the course of the 20th and 21st Century. For instance political Propaganda throughout the 20th Century has proven to be an extremely powerful and manipulative tool that various Governments, ranging from the brutal autocratic regimes of Soviet Russia + Nazi Germany to supposedly free democratic nations such as U.S.A (particularly during the cold war) have used to their advantage to incite feelings of patriotism, loyalty, hatred and fear, among many other powerful emotions.

In is not an exaggeration to claim that effective Propaganda programmes have been effective to the extent of brainwashing masses of people in buying into the ideology of evil and hateful regimes which oppose standard moral standards of morality.

Propaganda has not  just been used to aid political ideology. Companies large and small, have used manipulative propaganda techniques within advertisement – drawing consumers into buying/subscribing to a certain product through repetitive commercials, subliminal messages within advertising  and celebrity endorsement, among many other ploys to draw masses of consumers in.

I find the role of propaganda therefore to be extremely interesting. Exploring this theme will enable me to explore how ‘truth’ and ‘fiction’ overlap. I will investigate whether propaganda really is just a really effective way of emphasising the truth? or in itself a mechanism for twisting the truth? or both?

Because propaganda is so hard to define and pinpoint I believe it will be a really effective theme to explore in this exam theme. The excess of propaganda which exists everywhere – both historically as well as present day will allow for an extensive exploration into its important and often overlooked role in society.

To emphasise the importance of propaganda I will ask the following questions . Some of these questions are largely open for debate, but make one think quite how scary the concept of propaganda actually is ……..

• Is it really a coincidence MacDonalds is the largest restaurant chain in the world and has some of the most sophisticated methods of advertising within the last 50 years?
• Is advertising in any way moral, especially advertising aimed at children?
• Would the Cold War even have existed without propaganda to support the masses?
• To what extent did the likes of Moa, Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin use propaganda as a way of continuing their suppressive, murderous and terrifying regimes?
• Did millions of people who volunteered and then died in various wars of the last century go into war through their own free choice/or were they lied to and deceived by Government Propaganda?
• Should major religious organisation be held accountable for their use of propaganda to influence the minds of billions of people throughout the course of history ?
• How may the 20th Century have been different without advances in propaganda/advertisement?
• Is propaganda/advertising really that bad at all and in fact exaggerated by statistics + can it even be a force for good?
• How has propaganda changed overtime and how will it be different in the future?

Summary

I have decided to go along the lines of this paragraph because I believe propaganda is an incredibly important theme to look into. It has undoubtedly shaped the course of the last 100 years because of its ability to ‘steer public opinion’. I want to use this exam time to challenge and break down the fundamentals of propaganda, looking in particular at how photography has been used as part of this trend, and particular how captions and slogans alongside images have influenced how the image is views and thus the audience impression of the intended information.

I believe that marketing of propaganda is in itself was of the most significant and important art forms of the last 100 years. Propaganda MUST be credited as a legitimate form of art because it is a creative way of expressing an ideal and leaves a powerful impact on the viewer. It is also evidence of the power art has not just as a form of expression but as a ploy for commercial manipulation.

My aim is to both embrace the techniques of propaganda but at the same time challenge its ethical and moral standing.

Over the course of my research I will begin to gather ideas of how I can respond, photographically to this theme. I don’t want to commit to an idea straight-away but instead develop a few clear concepts before deciding for sure.

Malcom X talking about the power Governments have in using media to “propagandise the nation”

Truth:  the quality or state of being true.

Fantasy: the faculty or activity of imagining impossible or improbable things.

Fiction:  something that is invented or untrue.

Key words:

• True likeness
• Magical fascination
• Disturbing imagery
• True reality
• ‘ En plein air’
• Artists must be truly faithful to their own nature
• Depict spiritual qualities
• Steer public opinion
• Fascination for human anatomy
• Subconscious urge
• Inner vision

Possible artist references:

• May Ray
• John Stezaker
• Lewis Hine
• Bernd and Hilla Becher
• Irving Penn
• Agust Sander
• Edward Weston
• Ansel Adams
• Nick Knight

Initial thoughts/ideas: 

Truth: The quality or state of being true. That which is true or in accordance with fact or reality. A fact or belief that is accepted as true. These were the dictionary definition when researching the word ‘truth’. These examples are good ways to define the word however I believe that this word can be interpreted in many other ways. Truth not only stands as an actual fact, but also stands as a representation of what we believe to be true. Our memories and opinions are very powerful and we all perceive things in different ways. Truth being one of them. Whether it be focusing on the truth of statistical facts or the truth we have heard or envisioned in our minds, both show the differentiation and associations we contemplate when representing the truth.

Fantasy: ‘The faculty or activity of imagining things, especially things that are impossible or improbable’. Imagination plays a huge part of representing fantasy. Using our imagination to create things that we could only dream of is an interesting way to explore this exam theme. Creating images that hold elements of a surreal yet authentic style could be visually aesthetic alongside representing a certain fantasy you would like to portray, whether it be a representation of re-occurring dreams/nightmares or a particular interesting (spiritual) figure.

Fiction: Invention or fabrication as opposed to fact. Literature in the form of prose, especially short stories and novels, that describes imaginary events and people. This theme could be a representation of a particular fantasy story you could portray, perhaps even in a twisted and revealing way. Fiction also is a theme in which imagination plays a big part of and.making things/objects seem bigger and brighter (and almost surreal) could be an interesting factor when approaching this title.

When getting a brief overview of this years exam themes, there were a few things In the exam booklet that I highlighted in which interested me. A few key points included:

-subconscious urge

-true representation of objects

-inner vision

-cultures … Aborigional, Inca, Aztec, Polynesian

-life, death

-discovery, astronomy, astrology

-mirrors, reflective surfaces, lights

-synagogues, churches, mosques, cathedrals

A few ideas that were branched out from these initial ideas included this idea of crime photography. The fact that the first thing that happens when you get arrested is that you get a mug shot taken of you and you have to get physical copies of fingerprints, which is done in order to clearly identify the suspect could be an interesting topic to investigate. Also focusing on generalised mugshots (like the ones in passports) could be interesting to look at because they are plain and boring. Focusing on the fact that if you create an image and deconstruct/erase specific elements within that image, at what point does it not become valid? It is still an image of a person, features are still noticeable. But is there/where is the truth in misrepresentation.

Another interesting idea to look further into is social media. How we create this sort of alter-ego and this exaggerated avatar ( insinuating positive connotations) to make us more lovable and popular, and the fact that social media creates identities/identities that  are controlled by us, suggesting the fact that this person we’ve created may or may not be completely true.

Furthermore, a possible aspect that I find fascination is the concept of childhood memories. Focusing particularly on the truth meanings (specifically focusing on the comparison of memories within different age groups). An example would be how we fabricate things when we are younger. We go into a building and see big things and bold colours, however, we grow up to discover that the building isn’t actually that big (we can touch the roof with our fingers) and the colours were just in fact plain and simple. Conducting a representation of this could be quite interesting to undertake.