As I mentioned a few posts ago, I wanted to concentrate on Polaroids (my latest obsession). When I started university, I had digital photography on the brain - it was all I knew about, and apart from disposable cameras I had never really worked with any form of film photography before. However, in my second year I wanted to create something real, something delicate you could hold in your hand, and from working with disposable cameras I moved onto my new love for instant film. Many fine artists and photographers have used polaroid in the past, and so I wanted to begin to experiment for myself. After passing my second year of university, I left kind of drained and wanted away from photography for a while and focussed on other creative mediums such as painting and reading. The weeks went by and nothing was inspiring me, but I knew in time something would come to me, I just wasn't sure what.
This week, I suggested a trip to Whitby. Whitby has been one of my favourite places since I was a child, and so I thought if I was going to get inspiration from anywhere, Whitby would be the place - and it didn't fail to deliver.
I have two FujiFilm Instax camera's; an instax mini 7S and the Instax 210 which takes photographs with wider film. Above are just a few examples of the photographs I took that day and I found that the larger photographs seem quite painterly, which finally inspired me (yes, it's that simple, it made me happy).
Then I had a thought to myself; over the past two years at uni I have tried documentary photography, I gave it a go with portraiture and editing and last year became fascinated with landscape photography, and that was all fine and I got steady grades, but it wasn't allowing me to be as creative as I wanted to be. I've felt over the past few years my work has been missing something, compared to my college work or even my school work, the creativity has been sort of sucked out of it all and I finally realised after trying everything else, Fine Art is my thing. The thing I did all along, turned out to be my thing. Photography itself, doesn't make me happy. Labelling myself a photographer almost makes me feel nauseated (wow, how pretentious does that sound?) because to me, when you label yourself as something that specific, it's like throwing the possibilities of everything else away. I don't want to be a brand, I don't want to be known as a landscape photographer, documentary photographer or anything that ends in 'photographer'; I want to be a creative individual, an artist. I want to be able to express myself in whichever medium I see fit, and one day inspire others to do the same. Photography isn't my main artistic interest, but it probably was at the time I chose to study that pathway, so for one last and final year, I have to make the most of it. Make it mine.
For my third year project I am going to be going on a Fine Art Photography route (like I said before, it's my thing). I'm not going to tell you what that is yet, but work with some very traditional fine art themes and showing my own interests within my work, using instant film as my main medium. It will be expensive, but it will be worth it because when you take an Instant photograph it's like holding a small painting in your hand. There is only one, it's unique, honest and simple and creative. All of my favourite things in one image.