Moving on from my previous work that explored themes of young male adulthood, the physical form of body and landscape, I have now begun exploring ideas that work with and advance my own personal interests, such as intimacy in relationships, relationships, human connections, passion, trust, truth and openness. I believe this exploration is just as much a personal learning experience to my subjects as it will be to me.
I have been motivated to carry out this practice work from previous experiences and the focus comes from where my own life is at the moment, the people that surround it, the relationships built and the ones lost, the obstacles and trials and other moments. I have the desire to not just photograph the body this time, nor the aim to solely look at the male body but to just observe humans in general, and to take note of their opinions on areas such as censorship through males, females, old and young individuals, and sexual orientation.
This will be one project with two outcomes, I want to work within the studio; an area I can only describe as a ‘non-place’, and secondly a home (my flat). I somehow consider a flat - though it is not their home - is a home, it is a place where life exists, and takes place, a studio is not.
I want to photograph couples together in the flat, and photograph them individually at separate times in the studio, whilst all the time offering conversation in a informal interview way.
I want to use the time I spend with each couple and individual to find out what their relationship is like by allowing them to explain by any means whether it be with physicality or by words, what it is to them. I want to experiment with giving them words, such as ‘trust’ and see if they have different ideas on what that means and who they lay that word on to.
I have drawn inspiration on ways to do it from artists such as Hellen van Meene for the technical way she has managed to, through portraiture work capture and recreate special moments in young adults and children. Koos Breukel for his work on a specially designed large format camera, making stunning portraits of individuals and couples come to life. Rineke Dijkstra, David Bailey, and Richard Kern for their strict methodology when creating their series of work (Bailey – Bailey’s Democracy, Kern – Couples and Class Photos)
The methodology will be very strict, the only changing thing will be the participants. Shooting on medium format for both locations I aim to keep the framing identical for each location.
The end result? I would hopefully like to achieve a series of 16 individual people, a total of 8 couples to study, all shot on colour film. To then be able to juxtapose these prints onto walls will complete the series.
