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.

The definition for creationism is: “the religious belief that the Universe and life originated from “specific acts of divine intervention” as opposed to the scientific conclusion that they come through  about natural processes”.

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The main points of creationism are these:

Creationism takes the belief that all life was created by the actions of God.  Some Creationists say God did this in a single creative event whereas  other Creationists don’t limit creation to one event, but a constantly changing and adapting event.  Therefore organisms created by God can’t produce new forms of organism – only God can do this.  This links to survival because it shows that animals dont survive through chance, but they they have a specific purpose in life that they were created for to achieve.  Christian belief is that everything was created by God for his pleasure and glory.  “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created” (Revelation 4:11).  This theory therefore is composed of the idea that as the elderly passes away in nature and is replaced with the new, it is not so much because they don’t have the survival traits but the change found in nature is living evidence of God working in the world and re-enforces that creation is always happening and didn’t just happen once.   This explores the freedom of what life is as opposed to death because where evolution argues essentially life among beings is an accident, creationism sees life as having a particuler purpose in that we are meant to explore the limits of freedom in our lives which ultimatley passes down onto the generation below.

Big bang vs 7 day creation.  Baby, cells – microscopic cells

On the opposite hand, the Intelligent Design theory claims that some sort of supernatural designer was involved in the creation of life on Earth. It differs from Creationism because it divorces Creationist ideas from their roots in Scripture that a specific God had a purpose for everything he created.  Life on Earth – and also the universe- shows so much order, purpose and design that there must have been a designer.  Some living things contain certain types of complexity that are best explained as the result of an intelligent cause.  Some aspects of the universe show positive evidence of having been designed by some form of intelligence.   “We do not know how God created, what processes He used, for God used processes which are not now operating anywhere in the natural universe. This is why we refer to divine creation as Special Creation. We cannot discover by scientific investigation anything about the creative processes used by God.” (1)

All this is argumentative of a common point that counters evolution in that animals were created by God or someone rather than animals being a product of a common ancestor.  Interestingly where Creationsim argues where we came from, Evolution argues how we got here.  Therefore each argument is contrary to the other in that Creationism explains the reasons why life has existed and survived whereas  Evolution explains how life has survived.  This difference is significant to my project of exploring the freedoms and limitations of life and death, old and new because from a creationist viewpoint of change found in nature is part of God’s ongoing creation.

Young Earth Creationists believe that God created the Earth within the last 10,000 years literally as according to the way the Bible described this process.  Most Young Earth Creationists believe the Universe is around as old as the Earth is.

Old Earth Creationists believe that the physical Universe was created by God, but the event of creationism described in the Book Of Genesis is to be taken metaphorially and figuratively.

Gap Creationism argues that life was created on a pre-existing Earth, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Original act of creation.)”And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”  Therefore Gap Creationists can agree with the theory of evolution and with the ago of the Earth to an extent while holding a belief of Biblical Creationism as well.  However

Day Age Creationism believes that because the Bible doesn’t specify how long a day is, but in the Bible it could be millions or billions of years.  This view could also agree with scientific view regarding the

The Creation of the World – Genesis 

1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

³ And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. ⁴ And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.⁵ God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

⁶ And God said, “Let there be an expanse^[a] in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” ⁷ And God made^[b] the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. ⁸ And God called the expanse Heaven.^[c] And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

⁹ And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. ¹⁰ God called the dry land Earth,^[d] and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

¹¹ And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants^[e] yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. ¹² The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. ¹³ And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.

¹⁴ And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons,^[f] and for days and years, ¹⁵ and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so.¹⁶ And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. ¹⁷ And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, ¹⁸ to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. ¹⁹ And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.

²⁰ And God said, “Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds^[g] fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.”²¹ So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.²² And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” ²³ And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.

²⁴ And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. ²⁵ And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

²⁶ Then God said, “Let us make man^[h] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

²⁸ And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” ²⁹ And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. ³⁰ And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. ³¹ And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

(1) Gish, Evolution? The Fossils Say No!, 1979