Introduce yourself!
Hello! My name’s Corey and I’m a twenty year old photographer living in Manchester, UK.
What are some of your influences?
My influences are drawn from all different forms of creativity, particularly pop culture, but I love anything from Ben Zank’s minimalistic nudes to David LaChapelle’s chaotic high fashion. I connect so intimately with the devotion to art and the way that an individual will give their soul entirely to the purpose of photographic expression. I also spend a lot of time listening to music because for me, it can inspire some of the deepest feelings and realisations and that is what I aim to bring out and show about myself through the work that I produce.
What are you working on right now?
This is probably the most daunting question of the bunch. I spent three years constructing BLOODSHOT and I had such a hard time bringing the production to an end. I got to a point when I was doing my best work and I just didn’t want to stop. I recently had to build an exhibition from the ground up, and I decided that this presented itself as the perfect opportunity to expose all of my hard work. It turns out that I couldn’t have timed it better and people were absolutely infatuated with the finished product.
I am already producing concepts for the following photobook; all I can divulge is that the work seems to be mainly based around my difficulties as a child. BLOODSHOT has given me the ability to reflect on things with a psychological eye, but my main wish is that the audience can find something within the narratives that they can relate to
Tell us about "BLOODSHOT".
I have struggled to comprehend the meaning and destiny of my imaginative persona for a long time, but I’ve always known that the photographs I create are deeply nostalgic sentiments. It is only now that I realise how these real memories and ideas are my therapeutic and artistic ways of dealing with some of the challenges in my life. I want the audience to gaze through my BLOODSHOT eye as I craft some of the most personal and heartfelt pieces that are sewn together through the themes of fashion and theatricality. Though my visual constructions are extreme, they are built upon the hyperbolic foundations of my difficulties as an adolescent, and I feel that, without this ability to artistically express myself, I could not exist.
My self-portraiture however, is not created solely as a statement of deliberate expression; it also generates subconscious reflections which have led to an affiliation and familiarity with the nature of my personality. Fears are the reoccurring symbol in my conceptual work and I feel that they have quite delicately demonstrated a weakness in my creative reality. Some images in particular tackle the fear of an artistic lapse, a fear of the darkness, a fear of sexuality or sexualisation and a fear of both family and intimate relationships breaking down.
How do you feel about an emerging creative? Thoughts on how the online community and social media has changed to benefit us?
As far as I’m concerned Social Media will always have a place in my heart. It allows young artists to find and build an audience that is willing to learn about and understand them. However, it is also full of people that will hurt and critically analyse you, but it’s not always a bad thing. I started photo-making when I was just 16 and the oppression, misunderstanding and low expectations of others really pushed me to work harder and now I am at a point where I absolutely love sharing what I can do because I know that all of those people were wrong about me.
Any advice?
Speaking as a self-portrait artist with not a lot of money, the only advice I can give to other emerging artists is that they must not be afraid to explore themselves in any way possible and to have faith in what they can achieve. I’ve always lived under the notion that photographic equipment is not essential to the creation of something beautiful. In fact almost half of BLOODSHOT was produced with a compact camera and the built-in flash. I had to strive for understanding and knowledge in the area of technology.
How do you spend your mornings?
I’m studying in my final year of university which means that most mornings are stolen from me, but I mostly enjoy spending my mornings in bed, who doesn’t?
FIND MORE OF COREY MULLANEY'S WORK HERE
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