My overall aim for the mock exam was to explore the different places of safety and insecurity that are in our loves. Places make such a difference to our moods, and the people that dwell in these places. They can make our day, or can cause so much stress and can highten our emotions. But, at the end of the day, we’re in different places all the time, and we have to adapt to these in order to carry on; to keep ourselves sane.

 

 

This photograph was part of my environmental portrait section. It has become one of my best outcomes of the environmental section simply because it has the most character and authenticity. It was taken completely out of the blue; it was as unprepared as the model was. Sometimes the best photographs are the ones taken without even thinking twice, as they are the most raw and organic. I guess the way in which I took the photo depicted the message for me: the natural way is the best way.

 

 

This photograph consists of several different images, all combined together through collaging. It included a picture of my house, a hand holding a lit match and two almost identical photos of a textured ceiling.

The overall look of this photograph has a very warm, orangey red tone – almost as if everything is on fire. You may interpret it as a warm, relaxed atmosphere, or a fiery and tense diposition . The house photographed in the photo has given me both: both the feeling of being intact, and the feeling of pure, wholesome range. It confuses me.

 

 

This work consisted of an old picture from my childhood, picturing me and my dad. Its also includes a landscape taken on film of the seaside where my family are from, in Ireland.

Initially, as part of my identity and place theme, I wanted to produce some works that conveyed my feelings of insecurity about myself, and the world. But after I thought about it, I wanted to focus on the stage of movement from the sinister place of insecurity to the overwhelming sense of freedom. When someone who has physically been in your life for so long, but not emotionally, suddenly dissipates from your entire existence, it forces you to realise how you were feeling back in the past. It enlightens you to a new sense; a new set of emotions that are pure and brand new. But because there has been so many confusing, complex times in your life, you have had to mold into several different versions of yourself, and the person who you trusted the most, that individual that is now the only person you have spiritually, seems to have holes and gaps in them too.

 

 

This window exists in my bedroom, but for so long my bedroom was a safe place that I hardly ever left. Yet part of me wanted to so desperately explore everything but the confounds of my own house. This photograph speaks for those times where I never had the confidence to explore the wider world when I so desperately yearned too. But I guess I have more time.

 

 

People often forget how they themselves influence their next moves, as we tend to focus on blaming other things that dictate what our next move will be. Our decisions can be optimistic or pessimistic: in this case the subject is lighting up a dark place so she can see again. The light she has created will help her and guide her to her next destination.

 

 

I’ve experienced times when the same place has given me two completely different feelings; the polar opposites of each other. It confounds me how one place can alter your emotions and feelings so much, too much. It makes me uncomfortable and insecure as I never know when this type of situation will make itself known again and confuse me once more.