Statement

In the beginning, I struggled to decide what I wanted to do with this assignment. I think choosing the subject is the hardest thing for me, as I like to push myself when I can, at least when it's a task I’m relatively familiar with or something I’ve developed a passion for. That especially goes for artistic endeavors. And while I may not consider myself particularly skilled when it comes to photography, there are aspects of it I’ve come to enjoy.

Leaning full force into my personal aesthetic, the themes, and the concepts that represent my voice as a creator, I’ve not only chosen to go with landscape photography for my final, but I’ve also decided to push myself by experimenting and incorporating light painting and extrusive time. Photographing landscapes feels the most natural for me. I (usually) don’t have to deal with people, and in essence, to me, it’s about capturing existing beauty, that’s just, there for all to see. I feel as though it has its own particular difficulties when it comes to making landscape photography unique and reflective of one’s personal style. That this is a part of the challenge. Though I have used several locations from previous assignments, my goal this time around was to give them that extra oomph by adding supernatural or fantasy elements via the mentioned techniques. My idea was to use light painting to create ghost orbs, fairy lights, and spirit-like forms and movement, while additionally incorporating extrusive time photography to create haunting imagery, with little to no props.

For the props I did use, I decided to primarily go with things I already had around the house, additionally adding a borrowed GMV light with a tripod, a tripod for the camera, a basic flashlight, some glow sticks, and oddly enough, a plastic grocery bag. The hard part, having very little experience with the necessary techniques, is that it came down to experimentation. I had to do a LOT of experimentation, so there was a lot of trial and error; meaning there were more than a few failures. While many of the pieces didn’t turn out as perfectly as I had hoped they would, I like to think I’ve gained a better understanding of how to get the effects I was going for, more or less. It’s definitely something that took me way longer than I originally anticipated, as it was way more difficult than I first assumed it would be. But then, that’s all a part of the learning process. 

With the overall concept of my series being the supernatural, and haunting imagery, I thought using a name like ‘Beyond the Veil’, would not only be appropriate but also tie everything together. The idea, being, that my photographs would portray and speak to the so-called veil between this world and the next. To do this, I used simple flashlight flickers to represent “spirit” orbs. A flashlight connected to a plastic grocery bag, via rubberband, was used to create all of the flame and energy-like effects. Extrusive time was used to capture faint, haunting, and ghostly images of myself. All while using familiar locations, my intent, was to reinforce the idea that these things exist all around us…beyond the veil. As if to photographically reveal the other side, that which we normally can’t see, everything would work together conceptually, as a whole, while also speaking to my own interests and style.

Though the majority of my photos required little to no tweaking using Photoshop, a few of the ideas I wanted to try, inspired by the work of other photographers, namely the portals and my unclear attempt at levitating, depended on the use of the program to combine multiple images. For the one titled ‘Evocation’,  I used a step ladder that I later removed via Photoshop and combined it with another photo on the same spot, with a circle of flames. The image as a whole turned out fairly well, unfortunately, it’s hard to see any distance between my feet and the ground. For ‘Abysm’ and ‘Exodus’, I simply cut out the interior of the rectangular shapes of light-painted energy/flames, and by placing another image on the layer underneath, my intent was to create the appearance of a portal to another place. While these also turned out, okay, I feel as though the transitions from the portals to the destinations beyond them, ended up looking kind of harsh. I couldn’t figure out how to make it appear more natural, and honestly, I just didn’t have the time to keep playing with it. Even though I’m comfortable with layers and know how beneficial they can be, I’d never used them for photos before, not in this manner, so it was a relatively challenging way to push myself.  

As a series, I’m happy with the way it turned out. I did both color and black-and-white variations. After receiving feedback from a couple of close friends, I decided to go with the black and white photos (an idea I got from Kieara), which seemed to be their preferred version. In the end, while the full-color photos do pop in their own way, I feel as though the black and white lends itself to my overall theme. I’ve learned a lot during this class, and while doing this final project, I was able to pick up even more, as well as remind myself that I have so much more to still grasp and discover. I’m grateful knowing that this class has made me that much better as an artist and look forward to the future work I will produce.