These are the photographs I chose to be put forward for the photography exhibition. For this part of my project I have used the title ‘Lost Souls’

For this specific group of images I took Liz Steketee as a huge inspiration when I was editing these photographs. Although she does not edit photographs digitally, she does tackle the theme of family and explores removing or blocking objects or people out of the photographs to portray a specific topic or story. This is what I tried to o in my photographs, sticking to the theme of absence and presence. Also looking at the theme of lose in particular, other artists have inspired me for other ideas for my project such as Phillip Toledano- Days with my father and Laia Abril- The Epilogue.

Comparison:

Both of these images include a person, which has been removed from the photograph by covering it in the artists image, it has been covered by white stitches- which almost makes the figure look ghost like, which could suggest the person underneath the stitches are dead or are dying. Similarly, my image uses a black colour overlay to remove my Granddad’s dad to show he is no longer there anymore- meaning he is not in my Granddad’s life. I decided to manipulate this digitally as I wanted it to give the effect of a silhouette to show although he is not here physically, he is still thought about and still remains as a memory in his life. The concept of each of the images, seem to be fairly similar. Both images are also archival images, which are manipulated. This is photographs from the past to show people how they were before- comparing this to how they are now. Liz using all archival images in her work and is known for manipulation.  This is where my initial inspiration came from to stem other ideas for my project work.

When it comes to other inspirations as I have stated before they are  Phillip Toledano- Days with my father and Laia Abril- The Epilogue.

Laia Abril

The Epilogue, follows an American family in the aftermath of losing their daughter to bulimia. She separates the work into sections allowing her to approach different aspects through different platforms, not only in the multiplicity of perspectives but also in a constantly evolving visual stimulation. The book itself is extremely inspirational for my project but in particular a technique she used throughout her project, which was interviewing and connecting this statement to the person in a picture format, which is something I will definitely explore in my project.

I really like this idea as she is voicing the opinions and thoughts of the loved ones, which were around her. This is similar to the idea I have for my photo book. I have conducted several phone interviews to get the thoughts of the people who are close to my granddad, which will be presented in a similar way to this. There will be an image of the person on the left hand side of the book and then a statement compiled from the interview. This is the way I would like it to be presented:

Laia also uses archival images in her project, which is what I will also be doing for my project. I will manipulate some on them, however not all. Laia did not manipulate any of her photographs, they were left how they were. I will include this in my own photo book as well as manipulated archival images to show the theme of loss. Laia too takes on an emotion theme of death and showing archival photographs allows the readers to compare old and new photographs to create an image of what she was like. This again is something I want to get across as I am exploring the theme of change.

Other images in her book are of objects, things that the lady would have used on a daily basis or things that are important to her. For my project I will be photographing objects which are a part of my Granddad daily routine to give people an insight to whats significant or important to my Granddad. This would be things such as his pills, magnifying glass, doctors notes, slippers, his glass eye and their old and new house. In this case she photographed weighing scales and pills etc.  These would have been objects in her life as she would have been obsessed with keeping her weight down. I feel this gives us more of an insight of her life, which I will be doing for my project also.

Phillip Toledano

The project- Days with my father was created after his mum died suddenly on the 4th of September 2006. After she died, Phillip realised how much his mother shielded him from his father’s mental state. He suffers with short-term memory and is ‘often lost.’

Phillip takes documentary photographs of his Dad, this is a photography technique I will be using in my project as I want to document my Granddad’s life, which is what Phillip did for his father. He also takes photographs of his fathers chair and objects, again this is something that he will be using daily. I like the fact the images are documentary, as it naturalistic and therefore it is real and true. I like the way he shows the different emotions of his father as it is raw and feels real, this is what I want my project to bring.