Out Of The Darkness

This series tells a story of a relationship break up that took place over several months in 2020 and the transition to a new happier life on my own where I am free to connect with my family again in an uninhibited way.

The work contains images of banal domestic objects within the confines of my home where I lived with my partner during the troubled relationship as well as images shot in my new home in a new happier world, which gives this work the title “Out of the Darkness”.

The first three images (during the troubled relationship) are shot from within the home looking outwards. The last four images contain more colourful objects, sunlight and people, these are images shot during and after the break up and in a new happier world.

During the troubled relationship:

Image 3 was shot when still living with my partner on a rainy, grey cloudy day shot from indoors through a window looking out. The subjects beyond the window are blurred by the glass barrier and the rain. The outside world is not visible in the first three images. The light is muted and contains shadows.

The series is disrupted by a fourth image in a snapshot style at a wider angle which also creates disruption and a juxtaposition to the formal tightly cropped images preceding this. Further disruption is in the contrasting colours to the first three images, bright blue and yellow. Image 4 contains a collection of boxes that appear rather chaotic and clutter the image, another contrast to the preceding images with only a few objects. The sunshine in the room in this disruptor image is also in contrast to the gloomy rain and grey tones contained in the first three images.

Moving Out

A New Life

Images 5 & 6 containing the kettle and the dressing table are taken looking inwards and focusing inside the home, a different approach to the first three images in the series that were shot facing away from the home and outwards through the window. The first three images are shot in a tightly cropped formal style with a grey tone and the first two images contain no shadows inside the house. The shadows in image 6 are positive, from direct sunlight in a sunny environment. The last three images are still within the confines of a domestic situation but the subjects are more colourful and contain people, in contrast to the first 3 images. The final image contains bright sunny weather and human activity shot beyond the confines of the house looking from beyond the window, outside in the garden.

My body of work includes captions accompanying each image, these are selected snippets from my diary written over several months during 2020. This series represents a life changing event, a breakdown of a relationship

My series of images (body of work) Images are inspired by the work of Shafran with the absence of human figures and the mundane domestic nature of the work, focusing on everyday objects instead of people. I have used colour codes to reflect a mood where the first 3 images are grey and void of humans. I associate monotonous grey tones with little colour as a visual representation of my life at the time, of negative emotions such as sadness, being trapped and loneliness, I am portraying the feeling of being trapped and longing to be beyond the window and free outside. Composition is closely cropped to also capture the feeling of being stifled and trapped. Image 3 which shows a blurred outside world also reflects a feeling of not being able to connect with the outside world in a real way. Image 6 is an important final representation of life at that point in time. It shows how the outside world has become clearer, not clear to the point where the person is visible in the image, but it is progress compared to the images 1,2 & 3 that represented life before the break up.

Development of the work

Future work could include another series of images that include the confines of the domestic boundary but clearer images of people and relationships, these could contain sunny warm light at wide angles. The future series could also contain images beyond the boundary of the home, embracing the world in an uninhibited way.

Outcome

The work could be displayed on a wall in a gallery and would flow in a timeline sequence as in the layout below. I received some cards from friends and family when I moved to my new home, these could be displayed on a table at the exhibition to add another dimension to the work. The room where the images are displayed would be a celebratory theme with the opening night champagne and upbeat music to engender the feel of a happy free life.

Research, preparation and ideas for this assignment can be found here