dreams and nightmares - no. 3

entrance

Dear Sheddists,

I did say it may not be pretty.

The first two photos in my 'Dreams and Nightmares' project are decidedly masculine. They feature sharp, straight lines, gloomy repressed emotion and totemic male imagery.  The key image today is female.  It is about soft feminine curves and dreams of dawning adulthood.

Our eldest grandson was on a sleepover last night and I discovered the results of an early morning nose-bleed on on a roll of tissue paper. It got me thinking. I found it a struggle to capture the image I had in mind and I make no excuse for showing the development of a creative process in the series of photos below.

It's not something talked of often, but there is a key rite of passage for a girl - the arrival of her first period.  The photographs I took today are an attempt to capture the dreams of a girl as she passes from child to adult.

I am conscious many may see this photo as crossing a line - especially as I am a man. However, there seems no good reason for this to debar me from commenting on such a crucial and special time in a girl's life. I am, after all, the father of two lovely daughters, both of whom have made a successful transition into adult life.

The photos were taken with a mixture of ambient light from the bathroom window augmented by a side fill from my mobile phone. I particularly wanted to accentuate the folds of tissue paper, which take on the form of a budding rose.

Some of the shots feature light flooding through an opaque frosted window.  The emotion I seek to convey here is escape from the safety of home and entrance to the challenging, big world outside.

Yours as ever,

electrofried(mr)