Some Photographs from my Travels - Tokyo

A view from the hotel...that's a long way down! 

I can't remember now from the top of which building this was taken. But this is Tokyo, and that big white thing in the background? That's Mount Fuji, that's where I went next.

Views from the top of Mount Fuji.

I'd go back to Tokyo in a second, honestly. 

Art Therapy - Final Pieces

These are the final posters from my Art Therapy project from my previous post:

Because Graphic Design was my subject of choice, I decided to create some typography based posters to present with my final images with similar colour schemes. The typography pieces are based on the feelings of an anorexic/ bulimic person, so that when people look at the posters and relate to those feelings they might also begin to look for help.

Art Therapy

This is a selection of work from my final major project about a year ago. I became very influenced and driven by my favourite photographer Lauren Greenfield's project Thin, and created a documentary about my own eating disorder. I'd done something similar previously, but I took a more mature approach to it this time, as I had a lot more time to concentrate on it. The project was photography based, and above you will see some drawings based on the photographs. This selection of photographs was based on the figure and different curves and different ways in which the body is able to twist and move.  The first image of the sketchbook was based on drawings and typography styles, with different quotes and written experiences I went through with my eating disorder.

The next photoshoot I did was all about sequence, and showing events in the way that things would usually happen. I decided to by my own model because I don't think it would have been as believable any other way because the emotion and tension wouldn't have been there in the photographs. 

My last lot of photographs was of some diary entries I made in the time of my Eating Disorder, writing things down helped me a lot because I didn't really feel I could talk about what I was going through, and it was suggested to me that I kept some kind of journal, because at least that way I was getting it out. Alot of people  seemed shocked by my choice of project, and I did have to confess to my tutors it was based on myself as they were getting very suspicious of how I knew so much about eating disorders. I think once they actually knew, it was easier for them to look at and understand as well. My original project idea was to create a campaign for raising awareness for adolescent mental health, but I was finding it hard to create without using my own personal experiences and once I began doing this, the project meant a lot more to me. I am quite open about everything that happened to me because I don't think anyone should have to feel trapped in there own bodies, and it has made me who I am today. As much as it was hard to concentrate on the project sometimes, I'm glad I did it because it was a kind of Art Therapy for me, and like Andy Warhol once said 'the more you do something, the better and emptier you feel'; and once it was out there I didn't feel the need to hide it any more.

Reinvention - Book Cover Project

My final piece from a book cover project, in which we had to design a modern book cover for a new edition of an older book. 

I'm not a monster

Two of my final pieces and some idea work from my first project at college which I titled I'm not a Monster, which looked back through my childhood and blending it with adolescence. Again, I used black white and red which I then learned are the colours of protest, which could have fit quite well with this project. My childhood is something quite amazing to me and very close to my heart, and I've always been quite scared by the idea of growing up.

This collage is made up of four different photographs, inspired by the work of  David Hockney.

Working into Photographs

One of my favourite things about working with photographs is experimenting with them. Printing out the same photograph five or six times and doing something different with each one, adding different media such as paint, oil pastel or even cutting them up to make a collage. These are two of my favourite collages from a series I created a few years ago. The top collage is based around Eating disorders (something I am very passionate about) and the pressure in the media to be thin. The bottom image is from a series of photographs I took inspired by the great photographer Henri Cartier Bresson. 

The Youth of Today - Finals.

This was my first exam, photographs shot in Leeds and these are still probably my favourite photographs I have ever taken. Also, black, white and red become a very popular colour scheme in my work after this point.