Voyeurism - The Unseen Photographer

In July 2010, I visited the Exposed exhibition at the Tate Modern. The ideas I gained from the exhibition inspired me to experiment with some of the themes, and see what it was like taking pictures of people when they were unaware, pushing the boundaries of public and private, and what is acceptable and what is not. I found it technically difficult; having to hold my DSLR at waist level, having to assume the right angle to capture passers by.

The story behind the image is what makes it more powerful - who is he talking to? What is he writing? Am I intruding? 

 The expression on this man's face is what makes the image interesting. It could be interpreted in a number of ways

The viewer would look at the man and the birds, and ask themselves if this is how he spends his days

 

What made him stop? Is he reaching for something in his jacket? Or is he composing himself before an important meeting?

This short series of images raises unanswerable questions, as they intrude into the personal lives of the subjects I photographed. Each viewer will have their own thoughts and ideas on the image, but only the subject themselves will know truly what was occurring in that instance.

Masking Nudity

This idea came from looking at various photographers, such as Terry Richardson and Mario Testino, it is an ongoing set within my project 'On The Edge'. The concept is to shock but not offend, I want to engage the viewer as nudity is often something people avoid looking at.

Self portrait movie stills

Movies are obviously moving images, however after watching a movie there are often stand out images and scenes that remain in the mind rather than the overall narrative.

There are many iconic images in movies and this set of images is from work where I picked around 10 films that I considered to be different, edgy or 'cult'. I was looking to pick one scene or image from each movie and recreate these.

The images chosen, although looking superficially simple,  presented surprising technical challenges. This is an area that I would like to pursue further although I realise I would need access to better studio facilities, lighting and props than I have at present.

I took inspiration from a number of sources but the work of Cindy Sherman in particular provided some interesting ideas, that I could try to reinterpret.

Donnie Darko - The image has been altered using Photoshop to create the light effect

Blair Witch Project - I used a video camera, with a hand held torch to provide the lighting effect.

Psycho - The shower scene - in my shower!

Closer

Taking inspiration from work by Matthew Brindle, this is a sample from within my  'On The Edge' project.   I've been looking at portraits and asking the question " how close is too close?"  I am asking the viewer to think whether  these are considered to be normal portraits.

Dan - I like the intensity of the one eye that is showing

Dan - A more edgy almost sinister feel emphasised by the lighting

Emma - The solemn expression alongside the symmetrical nature of the face makes this an interesting study

Shelly - Of note is the detail in the eyes and the connection between the model and the viewer