Ain’t That the Truth
As the line between fact and fiction is often blurred, photography acts as a platform that can portray either. Whether an image systematically documents an event or creates an event to make a point, it can sometimes be tricky to decipher between what is truthful or manufactured. The fact is that everything communicated originates from a specific perspective, and even the most literal examples of photography are edited to be seen in a particular way. To explore this notion, my own experiment ‘Without a Trace’ uses found objects to create a fictional story. Although the narrative is frivolous and not particularly eventful, it highlights the idea that even the most insignificant or disregarded objects have a background story. What the viewer believes, belongs to their own imagination and the experiment allows this to be expressed, by juxtaposing factual and fictional content; encouraging the viewer to question what they are seeing.
The Tip of the Iceburg
Stories can be told in different ways, from different perspectives, depending on who is telling the story and how the story is being told. In an experiment to create a narrative within one image, my own artwork below (The Voyage) explores how a story can be created by layering imagery, rather than presenting a sequence of shots. By using my own image as a base, I then overlaid found photographs taken from the same angle to provide a conceptual insight into where the ship has visited over time. Open to interpretation, the final result documents the ship in both a factual and artistic manner, allowing the viewer to fill in the gaps with their own imagination.
The original images can be seen in context below:
https://holemaker-technology.com/blogs/news/rrs-sir-david-attenborough
capsule-blog.com 