Will Lakeman is a local Jersey artist/photographer. Last year he did an exhibition at Art house Jersey’s Capital house gallery, where over two thousand people attended. The exhibition was based on the former leisure centre and swimming pool at fort regent. In the exhibition Will Lakeman includes the use of AI generated images of the the former site which look surreal and are interesting as you see the AI’s interpretation of the old fort regent. However there is a lot of controversy online with AI art as it undermines and negatively impacts real artists who make a living and spend hours creating art and commissions, some people don’t even consider AI art as art.

Lakeman states about his work that “Through my work I try and communicate something of the weird, vivid sensations of my dreams and nightmares.” This can explain why a lot of his photos have a dream like and in some cases liminal aesthetic to them, especially in his series ‘Lurking in darkness‘ which uses coloured gels, as well as being shot at night.

As well as Will Lakeman’s work being shown at Arthouse jersey, he has also had his work shown at the Private & Public gallery and the CCA galleries. In 2021 he was awarded the Summer Prize from the CCA Galleries International Summer Exhibition, this shows just how creative and good his photos are, which I personally find that they are all interesting to look at especially as most the photos are taken locally.

some photos of his work

Image analysis

This photo was taken by Will Lakeman in 2020 as part of his series of photos called ‘Lurking in darkness’ with Will describing the series as “I love to explore the world at night. I aim for these images not to represent reality, but to explore my dreams and fantasies.” which can be seen in this photo, which has a dreamlike and even liminal aesthetic to it due to multiple factors.

The first factor is due to the sense of unknown. We know nothing about the person looking in the window or even the location, as the background is completely black and there is little to nothing in the photo that provides context. The second factor is the strangeness of the photo. In the photo, we see a woman looking through a window, which is in the centre of the image and is the main subject of the image. On the other side of the window, there are lots of potted plants. This sense of strangeness reflects dreams, as dreams can be strange and random and contain elements of the unknown, providing mystery and making people want to seek answers.

The lighting is also quite interesting in the photo, all the lighting is artificial and the white light looks really bright especially as it contrasts with the darkness of the rest of the image, there is also a really nice purple shadow coming from the window, made from coloured gels, which provides light to the foreground of the photo. The lighting also helps contribute to the dream like feel of the photo. The cool white and purple from the lighting gives the photo a cold feel to it and may imply that the dream is not inviting or positive and may reference that the photographer’s dreams are not enjoyable or wholesome ones.