I feel that I have truly uncovered a new passion of recent in being able to play with photography and as such am immensely grateful for having been given the opportunity to pursue it in the first year of the BCT course.
My decision to explore, "Natural Life and Death" through photography is one that I am very pleased I chose to go with. As I am unable to make it to the presentation day, all my material will be presented through tumblr, in the exact same format as I would have aspired to present it in class. With each of my selected images, I was very particular about how I set them out. I wanted there to be progression of Life to Death stages, whilst also exemplifying the Natural aspect of it. I felt that this was something that was captured particularly well in the images of the white flower, in it's various stages of life. Firstly as a flower in full bloom and all it's glory, onwards to one which has been touched by death, on to the final one which has embraced death and is completely browned in colour. This shows a natural cycle and also reflects the natural motion of the seasons which embody and reflect the idealism of life to death: Every autumn the world dies, and at spring it is born anew.
I find that this reminds me in particular of how the Greeks explained the cycle of the seasons in Mythology. By their canonical belief, every Autumn and Winter, Persephone, the daughter of the Goddess Demeter was sent to the underworld to reside for 6 months. In these 6 months, her mother would no longer tend to the earth as was her dominion, and thus the world would die. Upon her daughter's return to the earth however, Spring and Summer would appear, when the world would come back to life and be in full bloom. The first and second images, encapsulate this perfectly as they reflect the life to death cycle (image one) and the arrival of Spring from Winter (image two)
Image Two, of the tree branch stretching out to the sky perfectly reflects the concept of Winter becoming Spring. On the right hand side of the image, the branches are very dark and the trees in the background are clearly covered in amber leaves and still fully burdened by Winter. Yet as your eyes pan to the left, the image comes to life once again and you can see flowers, green and the branches grow much lighter. This, in a way almost looks as though it has just been touched by a Goddess out of myth. The tree seems to be stretching towards the warmth of the sun and beginning to burst with life in order to rival the dark, cold nature of winter.
The third image on the other hand, takes a different approach. A favourite of my childhood, and a beautiful flower, it is in fact a death bringing and a weed. Typical in most gardens in New Zealand, these flowers crop up in shaded areas and choke the plants around them. I found a cruel irony in this, in that the weed produces a beautiful flower which gives life to dark areas, yet at the same time it kills the other plants around it. I feel this takes a twist on the intent of my project in that it reflects how in Nature, death can often take the guise of life in order to preserve itself and wreak havoc to those around it. Much alike images of wolves disguised as sheep; these flowers operate in a similar fashion in that to the unknowing eye, they are but beautiful flowers.
Due to complications having arisen, I was unable to render these into animation as I'd hoped, however going forward towards the Vernissage Submission, I aim to utilise my photography and images in order to generate animated, photographic images. I regret that I did not have more time to explore this, but was glad with my choice of task, as it took me away from the confines of the classroom for two weeks and out into the field where I was able to tinker with photography and setting up scenes. I feel that this well equipped me for the final submission and I look forward to it.