#isolation series

[moonlightdistractions]

Fujifilm Instax photography of and by Alexander Calvert, an isolation series for Boys by Girls magazine Part 2 (Part 1)

"I want endless summer nights. 4 a.m. magical conversations in the park. Sweaty dance clubs that light up my face with alternating strobes. The smile of being surrounded and safe within a shiny little moment." - Alexander Calvert

[emily-mchugh]

This is not Untitled. This piece was shot during my second year of university. It focuses on the landscape, the vastness, the eerie, macabre atmosphere of confusion. It is not necessarily a reflection of anything but itself.

[emily-mchugh]

"Les temps sont durs pour les rêveurs" Self portrait with Sophie

[emily-mchugh]

Angel in a c-a-g-e

Falling. Dreaming of falling, dreaming of flying. Is it the same as running through life? Never stopping, never going. A little bird (girl, angel, bird) running and jumping, tumbling down down down but never taking off. Escape from the c-a-g-e. Don’t want to be alone, lonely, surrounded. Run run run. Down down down. Up, further, reach. Seek and you shall find. Find what? Yourself? Perhaps (not). Is it all in your head, are you dreaming still? Do they see it, do you see it? If you can’t you’re looking too far into the picture. Look (l-ooo-k) around it, past it, further than you want to be, walk away from it. Leave. Come back tomorrow and reconsider what you don’t believe in. Don’t believe in angels, in dreaming, in flying (not falling). I don’t believe in angels because maybe I am one. I am confused again. Please don’t consider it all too much, but not at all. Just look again (close your eyes) take off.

[emily-mchugh]

In my photographic practice, I seek to capture a sense of isolation, disorientation and dissociation. I have attempted to depict these sensations and feelings by using myself as the subject, as I at times have experienced them. My presence in the images is part of a process of making where the use of film is also important, as the grainy and varied tonal qualities give a lesser sense of realness than what is given by a crisp digital image. The work explores my experiences with lucid dreaming, where I control my dreams after I have run and taken off from the ground, but of course this does not occur in the physical world. Yet it is an aspect that affects me when I have awoken and I hope that this shows through the work. Some of the images have a haze or are obscured, where camera errors, deliberate or otherwise, reflect a dream-like state of mind. I am inspired by what is around me, but in some cases what is not. I have tried to capture what I don’t believe in for the possibility of making myself believe. I wanted to also capture the fleeting moment, something that only happens once and only when you want it to. As well as the still photographs I have exhibited a moving image piece to further demonstrate my ideas and dreaming process. The static position of the camera became a large part of the work, as it does not move for either the photographs or the moving image piece. It shows that the subject is in a truly isolated state, as I feel that if other angles had been used it would present the idea of being watched by others, rather than just by oneself.

[emily-mchugh]

[emily-mchugh]

[emily-mchugh]