This project is about phobias. I plan to create a series of black and white images, and each image will be named after a certain phobia, the phobia will also be represented within the image, this may be subtle, or obvious.
This project has been developed from my original idea for 303, it was called -FOUR- and was a documentary piece of a players progress through a video game which consisted of 4 different worlds, where they had to find 4 beings/objects and 4 locations in order to move onto the next level. I built my own models and costumes and photoshopped myself in the into the worlds created. Fortunately, I had only completed making and photographing one of the 'worlds', the horror world. I named each image after a phobia, but I felt it was beginning to become a lot harder to create the models as I couldn't get the materials needed, so I decided to keep the theme of portraying phobias, but in a very different way.
Nukt.
This was an image from my original idea, I found this image to be the strongest out of the few I created, but there was still something missing.
I decided to look into the works of Alfred Hitchcock, Cindy Sherman, Stanley Kubrick and short films such as Meshes of the Afternoon. The use of lighting and negative space made the images/films eerie, for example, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.
The way the light hit some of the objects and illuminated the face made me not only focus on the character, but what was around them, or what wasn't around them. In every scene, there are harsh shadows cast by various objects making everything in the room stand out perfectly.
I decided to try and create images in this style. I want the viewer to feel uncomfortable looking at them, I want this because some phobias are seen as silly or irrational, but it can be the biggest fear to someone else. So, I want to try and make the viewer feel the discomfort that someone else with the phobia may feel, it may not be as big or the same feeling, but a phobia is a phobia. Everyone just experiences them in different ways.
ýpnos
This is the first image I created for my new project, the fear represented in this image is Somniphobia, the fear of falling asleep. I have decided to make the images in this project black and white, I find that the black and white makes the image eerie and causes less distractions. You focus more on the highlights and shadows created as there aren't any colours to distract you or take your focus away from one part. This was an issue I had with my previous idea.
I also plan to crop my images to this size, the panoramic style allows you to focus on the main part of the image, in this case, the eyes. The fact that you can't see the whole face, where they are or what else may be happening makes the image slightly mysterious, and the direct eye contact is discomforting.
I find this style of imagery is stronger than the ones I was creating previously, and my having all of the images in black and white will make them flow better as a series of images.
The project is still personal to me, some of my deepest fears will be in the series, and I will be photographing myself and my partner - this will be the first time I will be photographing my face without covering it, so the whole project will feature one of my fears, it may not be mentioned, but for me, this is the most important step to overcome it.
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