Test Images

The two images above link to the quote – ‘And when you find somebody who accepts you, even with all your faults, everything changes. You open up to them in a way you never thought you could with anyone.’

The images are simple, yet represents the support that I get from being in a relationship. It contrasts with the other images where I am alone. This focuses on the idea of recovery, and how being in a relationship has helped with this. The simplistic muted tones is a theme throughout my work, giving it a film photography feel. Using negative space within the image allows the viewer to focus purely on the hands, without any distractions.

Test Images

These self-portraits were produced to create a sense of loneliness, as well as having no control over this loneliness. I feel that the orange colour of my hair is slightly to bright in these three images, creating a distraction. What works well is the white clothing contrasting against the black headboard, and this idea of contrast is something I will continue to use throughout my work.

These two images for me are the strongest. The first one shows the idea of loneliness more than the others, being surrounded by nothing else in the image. Not showing my face is a common theme I have used throughout my self portraiture work. The final picture works best for me, the blurred effect links to the idea of having no control over my loneliness, and the bright colour of my hair contrasted with the muted tones of the rest of image, draw the viewer into the work. The white clothing has a rawness to it, similar to the film effect colouring within the image.

Test Images

I wanted to create images using shadows, playing on the word ‘consumption’, using colours to experiment with emotion. I feel that the green and red work best. This is because the green represents nature, which is a common theme within my work, whist the red ceases feelings of uneasiness, and anger. The idea of using a shadow shows a lack of connection from reality, as well as wanting to be unseen.

Although I am intrigued by the idea of working with shadows, I feel that these images do not work as they lack interest. I will continue to work with shadows within my photography, however replacing the plant with one that has a more obvious share, or using myself as the subject.

Test Images

‘There’s an emptiness that’s fills your teenage years. Going to university was supposed to be the best three years of my life, but ended up being the worst. You start to question yourself. Why can’t I make friends? What’s wrong with me? That’s when the loneliness kicks in. You spend so much time alone, that you begin to become comfortable with loneliness.’

These images were the initial test images for the quote above. The second two images of me being transparent work best for me. The first one is slightly boring and to me has no reference to loneliness as the surroundings have not be made visible enough.

However within the second two images, there is a sense of being lost within the landscape, an idea of loosing myself, especially as I am walking away.

Test Images

‘Social anxiety doesn’t just affect your mind. You feel like you can’t breathe. Like everything around you is rushing by and you can’t stand still. Your heart starts to beat faster. Palms clench. The whole-body tenses and you struggle to focus your mind on anything.’

After the last images felt to ‘fashion’ based, I looked at ways that the images represented my social anxiety more, rather than producing an aesthetically pleasing image.

By making the images out of focus it relates to the quote when stating ‘Like everything around you is rushing by and you can’t stand still’. The photos go against usual conventions within photography such as having the images in focus, therefore making the images slightly uncomfortable to view. This is the aim within my work as I don’t want viewers to look at the photographs comfortably.

Test Images

These images in particular represent ‘You feel like you can’t breathe’. I imagine this layer consisting of a collage of photographs, each one showing a different body part that I mention in the quote. This layer is to prove that social anxiety doesn’t just effect you mentally but also physically which a lot of people may not realise.

Although the lighting in the photographs is interesting as it represents the emotion I am feeling, I feel that they appear to ‘fashion’ like and therefore don’t feel raw enough.

Layered sculpture design

After struggling to think of ways to construct the sculpture with layers, i’m going to put it together using invisible wire. This will allow each layer to hang separately so that the pictures and writing can be seen, still enabling the shape of a person to be made.

The wire will go through each layer, and the sculpture when presented will be hung up. When the sculpture is not hung up it will simply collapse together, meaning the sculpture is only visible at certain times.

Photographs within my work

Up until this point my research has focused mainly of the design of the sculpture itself, however after beginning to think about the actual photographs I want to use I have come up with a few different options that I will experiment with.

Photos from my childhood – These photographs will represent my life before I had social anxiety, showing the difference between life then and now with anxiety.
Self portraits – After using self portraits within my previous module to represent what it is like to live with social anxiety, I have decided that I want to carry on with this idea and continue to produce self portraits based around mental health.
Landscapes/nature – This is something that I also used within the previous module. The landscapes contrasted with the self portraits, often representing peace. It also helped the project to not become boring, offering something different from continuous self portraits.

Sculpture Design

As well as experimenting with the method i’ve already previously spoken about, in which I create layers that would make the shape of the ‘body’, I also want to experiment with using paper mache to create my sculpture.

With the idea of pulling out layers, I am struggling to find ways to attach the layers together, as well as creating something that allows me to remove each layer and slide it back in. I also think that simply sticking photographs and words onto each layer isn’t as creative or as interesting as I would like the project to be.

Using paper mache to create a ‘body’ shape will allow me to easily cover the sculpture. I would look to cover the main body in words and quotes that I have personally written which describes social anxiety, and from the head have ‘stem’s’ representing my thoughts, in which I hang photographs off.

Below is a basic mock up of the how words would look covering the main part of the body, and as I go onto mock the work up for real, I will then add the stems in which the photographs can be attached.

Basic mock up of text on the main sculpture

Sculpture Design

Each drawing below shows the shapes of each layer which will be used within the sculpture. The pictures start the at the head and work down the body. When using a thicker material such as polyboard, each layer will be placed on top of each other which will build up to produce a 3D sculpture.