Nightmares & Fears
Initial brainstorm:
After brainstorming my overall theme, I wanted to break it down further into my sub-themes. I thought about the different areas of 'perspectives' and decided my first investigation would revolve around the idea of nightmares and the feeling of something unknown and unwelcome.
I chose this small theme to explore first because I felt it would be the best way to start off my coursework as it had the most potential. As this was my starting point, it was important that I tried to make this investigation go as far as possible, I wanted this project on Nightmares and fears to be the biggest and then the other projects be slightly smaller to back it up. Therefore, by planning out all the areas that I wanted to cover I would be able to refer back to this plan and carry on an investigation. |
Artist research: Joshua Hoffine (Images are the photographers)
Joshua Hoffine was born in Emporia Kansas in 1973, he is mostly known for his 'Little Girl's Nightmares' pieces of work, in which he explores the 'psychology of fear' within children and the way in which the subconscious mind evokes horror in everyday life.
Joshua Hoffine's 'horror' work revolves around the ideas, concepts and psychology of nightmares and fears, the nature of his work is something that I am interested in as a starting point in my theme of perspectives because a nightmare or fear is something that will always be unique to a person, a person may have the same fear as another, but what they feel for themselves is something different. Hoffine's work on horror and subconscious fear is a good starting inspiration for my starting project on fear and nightmares as we have the same aim.
I think that Hoffine's photos aim to show the reality of nightmares, and bring what normally we would witness in a subconscious 'world' into reality and in a way confront us with the fact that 'monsters' are all around us, literal or metaphorical. Nightmares are usually provoked from a fear, when we are asleep we do not know what is real and what isn't, however when we are awake we know that what we have just dreamt is not real, bringing something from our dreams into reality creates a distorted perception of what is real and what isn't, and therefore in my opinion makes the photo more real and arguably have a bigger influence on whoever is looking at it.
I want to use Hoffine's work as inspiration for this project as more of a starting point because our style of photography is different, Hoffine uses portrait photography to display his thoughts whereas I want to show nightmares and fear through landscape or cityscape.
Joshua Hoffine's 'horror' work revolves around the ideas, concepts and psychology of nightmares and fears, the nature of his work is something that I am interested in as a starting point in my theme of perspectives because a nightmare or fear is something that will always be unique to a person, a person may have the same fear as another, but what they feel for themselves is something different. Hoffine's work on horror and subconscious fear is a good starting inspiration for my starting project on fear and nightmares as we have the same aim.
I think that Hoffine's photos aim to show the reality of nightmares, and bring what normally we would witness in a subconscious 'world' into reality and in a way confront us with the fact that 'monsters' are all around us, literal or metaphorical. Nightmares are usually provoked from a fear, when we are asleep we do not know what is real and what isn't, however when we are awake we know that what we have just dreamt is not real, bringing something from our dreams into reality creates a distorted perception of what is real and what isn't, and therefore in my opinion makes the photo more real and arguably have a bigger influence on whoever is looking at it.
I want to use Hoffine's work as inspiration for this project as more of a starting point because our style of photography is different, Hoffine uses portrait photography to display his thoughts whereas I want to show nightmares and fear through landscape or cityscape.
These are some photos from Hoffines 'Nightmare and horror' work, each photo is unique in showing some kind of different fear or nightmare.
Photo analysis
- This is one piece of work that Hoffine created during his Nightmare and fear work, the photograph is of a young girl coming down what appears to be the cellar stairs, however underneath the stairs there is some kind of inhuman type monster. The young girl is holding a flashlight, and there is a light coming from behind her, these two sources of lighting appear to be the only light sources in the photo therefore creating a spooky, mysterious atmosphere. The limited amount of lighting allows a silhouette of the girl therefore blocking out her face, and therefore giving the impression of 'blindness'.
- I think that the idea behind Hoffine's series of work is that he wants to show children's nightmares, but a nightmare is very subjective to the person experiencing them, therefore each I think the photograph represents the idea of stepping into the unknown and almost confronting your nightmares. For the person looking at this photo, Hoffine really plays on the little girl and the connotations you associate with her, like innocence. Therefore the construction of the photo allows the audience to see the monster before the little girl.
- The little girl is only a silhouette because of the light source behind her, creating a kind of ominous feeling and the feeling of the unknown. The 'monster' beneath the stairs is one part that is exaggerated in the photo and the one part I don't particularly like mostly because it makes the photo look less realistic, I think the idea of nightmares revolves around the idea that during the 'dream' you feel that it is real, and that is what scares you. However, using what I don't like within his photos allows me to add my own interpretation and develop my own technique.
Photo analysis
- This photo is another piece of work from Hoffine's series of nightmare work, it is similar to the previous photo in that it has the same little girl and a monster. The fridge is the only lighting source in the photo again creating a silhouette, creating an eerie atmosphere and making it seem more spooky, therefore adding to the surreal/nightmare look of the photo.
- I think the lighting in this photo is important and is key to the overall look and atmosphere of the photo, without the specific lighting Hoffine has used, the final look of the photo wouldn't be as effective. I think that he has used only one light source because of the shadows it creates, and even though the lighting is quite warm it almost works with the overall aim of the idea of nightmares, it makes the scenario seem more real, when something seems more real, it is scarier.
- Hoffine uses the monster again in this photo and although it isn't something that I particularly like, it is obviously a common idea throughout this series of work. In my work, I wouldn't take this idea literally, I would use the concept of having a common idea throughout the photos, for example, using the idea of emptiness, I plan to take pictures of abandoned places and therefore will convey the whole 'nightmare' or 'fear' idea with the vastness of empty space, to some people big or small spaces are really intimidating, so rather than using Hoffine's idea of physical fear (as in being able to see what you are frightened of) I would use the idea of people's fear of the unknown, something you can't see which therefore scares you more.
Working in the style of Joshua Hoffine.
After closely analysing Hoffine's series of work about nightmares, I wanted to start experimenting with my photos in adapting and imitating his style. Although Hoffine's work is mainly portrait work, the main reason I chose him as inspiration was that his ideas were similar to mine and therefore I could use his ideas and concept to make sure the overall outcome of my photos were what I wanted. I looked at the pieces of work I found to find a common theme or technique running through his work, in this case his use of lighting and shadows particularly stood out to me, he had manipulated the light in a way that created numerous silhouettes that gave the photo a more eerie and dangerous look.
Best photographs.
After looking at the photographs I took, I wanted to take a few of the best images and enhance them in photoshop to make them appear more like the artist I researched, even though the aim was to use the artist I chose as inspiration and to use his photography style but I also wanted to add my own style and interpretation to the photos I took. Overall I think that the photo shoot went well because I achieved what I wanted to do. My main aim was to get an overall look an eerie atmoshphere, and after editing I think that my photo achieved what I wanted because of the lighting.
Artist research: Robin Ward (Images are the photographers)
Robin Ward is mostly known for her work in landscape and wildlife photography. Her work almost seems quite abstract in the way that she represents the location within her work. The idea behind using Ward's landscape work as an interpretation/inspiration is that I want to combine her style of work with Hoffine's nightmare work, although combining portrait and landscape work doesn't really seem possible, I only want to combine the ideas or techniques they both use to create a big idea. For example, the idea behind Hoffine's work is nightmares, and concentrating on the emotion and fear created by the people and editing in the photograph, whereas Ward's photography concentrates more on the atmosphere of the overall location, and I think combining the nightmare idea and working on the overall atmosphere of the location and end photo is my goal in this project.
When looking at her work, you get an eerie kind of feeling and her photos make you kind of question what you're looking at, as some of her work seems quite surreal and distant it often provokes a lot of questions into your mind, often making the photograph have more of an impact.
Although her work doesn't necessarily directly relate to my idea at the moment, the overall look of her work is what I want to achieve when editing on photoshop and therefore I would use her black and white editing to influence my work. Using her technique of making a photo seem unreal and distant is what I want to achieve overall with my photos, the idea behind 'nightmares' is that they are not real and therefore the slight black and white makes the photo look slightly abstract
I think that Ward's overall aim is to show locations in a different way, in a way a lot of her photographs can be interpreted to show a distortion of places, for example her series of black and white images give a sense of surrealism to the audience looking at it, the images appear quite lonely and perhaps the idea behind forcing people to feel this way is what she wanted to achieve.
When looking at her work, you get an eerie kind of feeling and her photos make you kind of question what you're looking at, as some of her work seems quite surreal and distant it often provokes a lot of questions into your mind, often making the photograph have more of an impact.
Although her work doesn't necessarily directly relate to my idea at the moment, the overall look of her work is what I want to achieve when editing on photoshop and therefore I would use her black and white editing to influence my work. Using her technique of making a photo seem unreal and distant is what I want to achieve overall with my photos, the idea behind 'nightmares' is that they are not real and therefore the slight black and white makes the photo look slightly abstract
I think that Ward's overall aim is to show locations in a different way, in a way a lot of her photographs can be interpreted to show a distortion of places, for example her series of black and white images give a sense of surrealism to the audience looking at it, the images appear quite lonely and perhaps the idea behind forcing people to feel this way is what she wanted to achieve.
Photo analysis.
- This photo is of what looks like a beach at night, it is quite a calm looking photograph, to me the message is the calmness of something surreal, as in it's better look at something weird and not think too much into it than to over think something not normal.
- A lot of Ward's images are black and white and I think this makes them less flat, they add a dimension to the photograph because of the contrast it creates. In this photograph, the desaturation makes the clouds seem dangerous and unwelcoming, something you could relate to nightmares, in that you don't really want to experience a nightmare and its not something you want. The photo has a high contrast, the difference between the moon and the clouds/sky highlights the contrast. I think the contrast in the photograph creates an effective atmosphere because it also adds to the dimensions of the photo.
- I chose to analyse this photo because of the atmosphere it has created, my main aim to use Ward as an inspiration is the atmosphere in a lot of her photos, the look of her photos have a sense of surrealism and therefore they appear quite spooky, the main look I want for my photos, combined with Hoffine's idea of nightmares I think that together, they will create the atmosphere I want.
- In this photo I think the main focus is the sun and the clouds because of the effect the lighting creates on the texture, it makes the photo seem eerie and spooky, and therefore it is effective because it gives the photo an emotion, and it makes the audience feel or thinking something when looking at it. The photograph's texture is complimented by the lighting in the photo, the contrast makes the clouds seem more three dimensional and personally, the clouds are possibly the most striking part of the whole photo, mainly because of the texture.
Photo analysis.
- This photograph is another image from Ward's landscape collection, and again it appears to be on a beach and of the waves. In this photo it doesn't appear as surreal as the one before, however the effect of the water does make the photo appear quite dream like and calm.
- The lighting in this photo would have been quite natural, yet the enhancement in brightness/contrast and the saturation makes parts of the photo seem brighter and more dimensional than other parts. I think that using Ward's editing techniques will help me in editing my own photos, using desaturated images make the feel of the photograph different, and there often is a significant difference between using saturation and desaturation and I think that experimenting with the amount of black and white you use could possibly create a more effective image than using full on black and white.
- I chose to analyse this image as well as the other one is because even though they are similar I think that they have slight difference in which I can refer to in my photographs, although the previous photo seems more surreal to me, this image also concentrates on effect and texture. I think that texture in a photo is very important and therefore getting it right would create an atmosphere which would be very effective.
Working in the style of Robin Ward.
Having looked closer at Ward's photography I wanted to recreate the way she uses her technique in her photographs and use it to influence my work, it was important to look at the overall ambiance and look of her photographs because I wanted to recreate what she had done to my photographs. Her work style is working with soft contrasts that also create an uninviting look, an idea that would work well with my ideas of Nightmares and fears.
Photo shoots
Abandoned building
Photoshop
Saturation, Colour balance and Brightness/Contrast.
Photoshop experimentation.
Experimenting with brightness/contrast, colour balance and saturation.
The end result of this experimentation below didn't go as well as the other ones I had edited. To begin with, I could have changed the angle of which the photo was taken, even after editing I think the lighting doesn't really compliment the look that I wanted to go for, in that I wanted to use the enhancements to make the place look more ruined and deserted, however in this photo I think there is too much going on and therefore the spooky and eerie atmosphere doesn't really show through.
Abandoned morgue
When I thought of nightmares and fears my next thought was the fear of death and how you die. Therefore I visited an abandoned morgue because of the idea of death associated with this place. I chose the morgue to be abandoned because of the 'nightmare' atmosphere it creates. The fact it is not in use means that it creates more of a surreal look.
The green tint to the windows means that the lighting in the photo-shoot has a lot of contrast and dimension. It also makes the atmosphere look more 'alien' like which arguably can be associated with nightmares.
Overall, I think the photo-shoot went successfully however the lighting inside the building was relatively dark and therefore the quality of the photos weren't as good as I had hoped.
The green tint to the windows means that the lighting in the photo-shoot has a lot of contrast and dimension. It also makes the atmosphere look more 'alien' like which arguably can be associated with nightmares.
Overall, I think the photo-shoot went successfully however the lighting inside the building was relatively dark and therefore the quality of the photos weren't as good as I had hoped.