Alexander Mourant is a London based photographer who was born in 1994 in Jersey in the Channel Islands.  He has

Mourant’s project Aurelian was based off a recent trip to Africa called Cairo to Cape Town: Africa’s Plastic Footprint which was documenting the shifting cultural and geographical landscape of Africa.  Aurelian which is the study of the passing of time and slippery nature of memory is linked to this trip in Africa where change was being documented.  This is because Mourant wanted to explore after this trip not just his memory of it, but how it has affected him.  Therefore this project is dedicated to envoking the experience of this trip to Africa as over time his memories and emotions clashed as an intense longing for the tropical landscape he had left behind and his past relationship with this developed.  In environments that reflected the experience of Mourant’s recent trip to Africa, it was in the atmospheric environment of the butterfly house that Mourant found his subject.  He was interested in the symbolism of the flight of the butterfly through across science, literature and art.  “These hot, artificial environments are used through the work to probe the nature of experience, such as an assembly point, or an artist’s studio, as an envisioned idea where time is not absolute but continuously contained and all-encompassing”.  In doing this he chose to experiment with a slower-paced, more conceptual approach that explores the metaphysical qualities of photography.

In my project I am very interested in exploring the concept of originally evolution is how we got here, and creationism is why we are here.  Therefore I am becoming increasingly interested in exploring the metaphysical within the physical and I believe the theory of evolution vs the theory of creationism acts as a strong backdrop for this.  Including in this, I am interested in recording a story of why the world was created and in doing that, explore the freedom found in nature in the ever continuous series of miracles that occur as change in nature.  Therefore Alexander Mourant is useful as a strong artist reference as I believe as his images are not only capturing his experience, but also these surrealsist images help reflect Mourant’s vision of the world.  This is not in terms of vision in terms of sight, but Mourant’s ability to capture nature in a way that connects spiritually with him. I similarly want to explore the way I see change and freedom in nature as something that has a purpose, and something that is based on my experience as a Christian in the ways in which I see the freedom given to plants, animals etc in terms of survival and change.  Therefore this project I believe is starting to head in a direction that explores spirituality in the continuous process of change found in nature, but also heavily links to previous project of faith in the family and environment.

I chose this image as I really like the strong atmospheric tones which I believe encapsulate the idea of capturing experience in a photograph.  I personally believe the blue filter is effective at connoting trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven.  These connotes I believe reflect Mourant’s relationship with his memory and experience because this is suggesting that his memory, his relationship with past experience is a power and force that is not only spiritual but also he has a living connection with it.  This is similar to my work that I want to explore in that creationism explores the notion that we are here for a reason and in order to achieve this, I believe I will have to capture the experience of my own beliefs to explore and explain why change is so frequent in nature an in doing this this explores the notion of freedom.  As I will be looking at why I believe life forms have a purpose, I want to explore the physical vs the metaphysical (in other words otherworldly) show the connection that has been lost with nature by humans.  I believe Mourant has achieved this successfully through the blue filter.  Aside from the symbolism that the filter itself was a piece of church glass window, I like how Mourant has captured atmospheric tones that reflect for me how the elements of this world are not just elements, but they were designed by a creater in an original, naturalistic viewpoint.  For example I like how the bird, is sitting on top of the trees and debris, this but also as well how everything appears connected and part of the same body.  Furthermore the composition of the image fascinates me because I like how their is a border like feauture to the bottom third of the image.  This in a sense gives the image a strong grounding, as we go from harder elements to more delicate and softer ones as we move up the image.  Aside from the blue showing how everything is connected, contrastingly by having such a range of elements in this structured order, it is easy to get the impression that  objects are still unique.  Both these factors link to my interest in exploring the Theory of Creationism in how everything in nature is connected but also how it is unique from each life form.

Aomori is a project done by Alexander Mourant following his Aurelian project.  This links to the previous project because Aurelian used atmospheric conditions to create a metaphor for elsewhere that he has a connection with.  However “Aomori, meaning ‘blue forest’ in Japanese, is a synthesis of two existential ideas – the forest and the nature of blue,”.  By exploring this relationship, I like how for Mourant it is him demonstrating how he translates his experience into his photographs.  The color blue and the environment is effective because it encourages how we perceive and connect with nature and the Forest is the vocational emphasis of the study of the progression of how nature changes and evolves.  “For me, the immensity found in the colour blue, encourages a deeper reflection on our past, present and future. In the same way, the presence of the forest and the density of its nature, arrests for us, the relentless progression of time.”  This links to my project of exploring creationism and the process of elements and change in nature because likewise with my project, Mourant is shooting the images that is led by his spirit.  I believe this inspires me in order to achieve images that explore the qualities found from the Theory of Creationism in the elements in terms of how the world was created, but also why the world was created.  Susan Bright commented on the religious symbolism of Mourant’s work,: ‘the spiritual history of the process seeps through into the image, to a time when the land was a place of worship,’.  This strikes me heavily, obviously being religious and this having a direct link to my previous project Faith but for me nature is something beautiful and I firmly believe that many Westerners have lost touch their connection with the nature and by with that the world.  Therefore in my project one significant aim of mine is to reignite that connection by highlighting how and why I believe their is something more to the elements thatn just their physical composition and how these charestics breeds new life and change into the world that is very beautiful.  “As temporal dimensions crumble, objectivity leaves us. We are found in a still, oneiric state, contemplating our own accumulation of experience.”

I like this image because it signifies continuous change and growth but also the rate of growth that is experienced and found in nature.   This image I believe is symbolic that nature and the change in nature isn’t random but purposeful and planned as opposed to an accident that happens randomly.  This image is also a strong metaphor for how the world was created as something which we are not necessarily sure where it came from, where we are going but we know we are going there and I like how Mourant has referenced the process of change over time.  Because the flow of the river arguably is random, then it could be mentioned that creation is random.  This links to the idea of freedom in that creationism gives freedom to evolve, linking both theories together.  What particularly strikes me about this image is how Mourant has focused on capturing smooth tones of water.  I like how effective this technique is at emphasizing furthermore how the metaphor for change isn’t so much focused on the individual element but how all the elements are reacting together and moving as one.  The image above I have selected because this emphasis of all of nature being in perfect harmony, being created as it was meant to be; I feel is important to note as constant change in nature is a freedom in its own right.  For example, not just the water emphasizes this but I believe by Mourant including the rocks and the banks, I believe this successfully shows the change and therefore freedom in these forms of elements over the years as their relationship with the river has changed.  In my image, I want to explore the freedom in change as a gift of creationism, and I believe this image is a strong reference to this aim.