dreams and nightmares - no. 1

masked

Dear Sheddists,

I'm delighted to say my photography class has started up again. This time there's a much larger group but it still retains the friendly, sharing atmosphere that made last term such a joy.

We met for the first time yesterday evening and talked about getting motivated to take photos.  Our superb course tutor, Kate Green, suggested nine top tips...

1. Always have a camera with us.
2. Maintain and heighten our sense of awareness.
3. Make the normal extraordinary.
4. There's no time like the present!
5. Keep an 'ideas log'.
6. Train our eyes to see the light.
7. Experiment and venture outside our comfort zone.
8. Stay on top of our processing and editing.
9. Annotate our pictures and capture the creative thinking and feelings behind them.

A number of us signed up for a 365 photos project, one a day for the next year. I've decided to call mine, 'Dreams and Nightmares'.  It's something I've been thinking about for a little time now.  I can't promise the photos will always be pretty, but I do hope they will be thought-provoking.

I know I can take reasonably competent portrait and reportage photographs. Family and friends, music gigs. church and the Villa are all favourite topics. However, I was challenged at the end of last term when Kate showed us some work by the American photographer, Gregory Crewdson.  Rather than finding things to photograph Crewdson creates fantastical photographic tableaux in the manner of a movie producer. It's well worth clicking on the link above to learn a little about the creative processes that lie behind his works.

I don't possess the skill, the imagination or the budget to create and shoot such scenes but I have been thinking about how I could do something similar on a much smaller scale.  I'm particularly drawn to photographs of an ambiguous nature, open to different and potentially conflicting interpretations.

The photograph above is the first in my 'Dreams and Nightmares' project. It's a simple shot combining a blue shirt and a mask I acquired whilst attending 'The Drowned Man' an immersive theatre production by the Punchdrunk company.

So by way of explanation, here are the techie bits first. I shot the photo using ambient light from a bedroom window.  In order to make the picture more atmospheric I used a wide aperture and under-exposed the photo by -1.7.

Now for the creative process and the feeling I wanted to create.  The shirt and the mask symbolise the face we put on when we get dressed.  We use clothes to create an image, be it a business suit, a party dress or a simple pair of jeans coupled with a well-worn t-shirt.

In the photograph above the shirt and the mask appear to morph into a face.  It's a psychological phenomenon known as pareidolia, in which we project images onto something we see by perceiving a familiar pattern where none exists. A good example is the regular sighting of the face of Jesus in a rich and highly diverse variety of foodstuffs!  In my shot of the day the edge of the mask and the collar of the shirt combine to produce what looks to be the jaws of a face staring out of the gloom.

Just for good measure, I've included two earlier shots I took on the way to creating the final piece.

Yours as ever,

electrofried(mr)

A very special Christmas present

Christmas photos are always magical because they carry special memories, but the photos above are even more magical for my family.  Let me explain ...

The young man dressed in the Santa suit is my son. He's twenty eight years old and learning disabled.  Twenty years ago I took him to his very first football match at Villa Park.  At the time he had a concentration span barely thirty seconds long, but he was absolutely enthralled!!  I took him to a few more matches that season and before very long we became season-ticket holders.

My son has learned so much from his regular Saturday outings. When we first started going to the Villa we parked about a mile away and often it would take me thirty minutes or more to steer him safely to the ground. The walks did him so much good, though. They helped strengthen his legs and correct his sense of balance, so much so that now I can barely keep up with him.  My son learned too the value of money. Much of his savings over the last two decades have been spent in the Villa shop!

And my son has learned something else as well ... the passion of sharing a football match in the presence of so many friends we've made at Villa Park.  You see, when he goes to the game he's just part of the crowd in the Trinity Road stand, cheering along with the rest like any other supporter.

This Christmas our son had a very special present. Villa kicked off their season at Stoke and came away one nil winners thanks to another blistering goal from Andreas Weimann.  A few days later I entered the weekly draw on the AVTV site and blow me down when I discovered I had won the very shirt Andreas had worn that day!

I don't suppose Aston Villa players are regular visitors to this somewhat meandering blog, but if any of them ever do please pass on this message ...

Thank you so much Andreas for your shirt - it made a very special gift for a very special young man this Christmas and when you come out to play at Villa Park just know he will be cheering your name!!