Succession Framing

Because I’m going to be presenting my Succession project for the Eldon show, I need to get that professionally presented. I had mounted it on thin mount board as that is all I could afford, but with the help of my parents (and because they want to hang it up in their house) we decided to get it professionally framed. We went to a framing shop in Woking to see what they could offer. Basically what’s going to happen is it’s going to get a white frame, as I didn’t want it to take away from the photo itself, and it’s going to have a circular window mount, so it doesn’t look too layered (first the white border of the photo, then the window mount and then the frame). Finally, it’ll have a glass front. It’ll be done in a week or so, but unfortunately I won’t be going home anytime soon so won’t see it for a while!! 

Concept

After doing a whole load of research on abstraction and why people use abstract art, I noticed that everyone used the idea of abstraction to express themselves, or show emotions. Vladinsky thought that colours evoked specific emotions, Pollock’s work looked at wild physical action and have come to represent the revolutionary mood of the time, Willem de Kooning’s work centered around aggressive applications of paint that created emotionally intense imagery, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman used the expressive potential of colour within their work, Jitka Hanslova used the forest where she grew up as the foundation to her work and finally Charles March took photographs of the trees around him, as they have always played an important part in his life. He used abstraction to add a sense of emotion to the work.

After all this, I started to think about what the photos evoke in me. They are about movement and the juxtaposition between beauty and confusion. What immediately occurred to me is my moving experience. I have lived in three different countries, and although this has been a fantastic experience, it’s also been incredibly hard. These images accurately portray my feelings towards my past.

0-7 – The Netherlands

7-9 – New house in The Netherlands

9-12 – America

12-14 – The Netherlands

14-18 – Buckinghamshire, UK

18-20 – Both Surrey (parents) and Hampshire (Uni)

Obviously this shows movement. Although it has been tough, I absolutely love the fact that I’ve lived in all these places. 

 

52 Week Photo Challenge

For this week the theme is "Foreign". I'm foreign so it was pretty easy. I didn't want to take a picture of myself as that would be a bit silly, but throughout a lot of my photography, especially the work on my website, I've a explored the idea of my past and the different countries I've lived. I didn't want to make it anything depressing as I love the fact I've moved around so much. My initial idea was my ducks. They've been getting so much attention lately so I thought I'd do something similar. For Christmas I received a duck with the Dutch flag, and I already had one with the English flag and the American flag so I photographed each of them against a white background indicating the three different countries I've lived (so far). 

I really like the look of them, and think they will make an excellent addition to my portfolio!