Once Upon A Time

There was a girl who loved fairy tales....

Fairy tales in general are a fascinating genre of literature. Usually written around times of extreme oppression or social conflict (well the good ol' fashioned ones are!) they help with the transitions between childhood - adolescence - adulthood.

I've always found there to be a thin line between fairy tales/mythology/religion. Which is precisely what makes them not only culturally relevant but socially too.

This is another book from my childhood which I looked to for inspiration. It's a mixture of both fairytales and illustrative styles/techniques. I choose to look at my varied photography equipment in the same manner.

below are scans of my favourite illustrations in the book.

Back In The Day!

My First ever copy of Alice in Wonderland.

My favourite bits that have inspired my photos so far:

Synopsis Pt. 1

It's not really finished... or particularly coherent.

Lewis Carroll's Adventures in Wonderland provides a physical removal from reality by creating a fantastical world and adventure in the mind of a young girl. I want to take this idea of reality and turn it into a series of images using the book as my inspiration. I intend to use the more artistic nature of experimental photography for my final piece. I want explore Lomography because I feel the dissimilar and disjointed nature of this almost cult practice fits in perfectly with not only Alice’s adventures in wonderland but also my focus of converging the idea of reality and dream life. Dreams can basically be lost memories, past events and even fantasies that we relive during our unconscious hours of the day. Perhaps Lewis Carroll describes the nature of dreams best. He contemplates the definition of insanity by saying, "... May we not then sometimes define insanity as an inability to distinguish which is the waking and which is the sleeping life?"

While I am using the book as my inspiration, I’m not re-enacting the storyline. I just want to capture random coincidental images and find this concept of a ‘wonderland’ within the ruins of Bradford.

So far I’ve used a model to pose with the characters I have made around surprisingly ‘natural’ areas in town, but I’ve made him (dressed at a contemporary Mad Hatter) the primary focus so far. On a philosophical side note I thought it’d be more interesting than concentrating on Alice. I felt it related well to the saying “In the kingdom of the blind, the one eyed man is king.”

Faking It.

Just to prepare myself in case my photography doesn't turn out as I intend it to, I've been practising editing pictures in Photoshop to give it a 'Lomography' look.







Simply messing about with colours and gradient.

Lomosexual

"The dreamer can retrieve his dream as an unreal affective quality... emotions become emblematic as fictional passions" Jean-Michel Rabate, Writing The Image After Roland Barthes.

I'll be experimenting with Lomography through the rest of this project.

I adore the artistic values behind it... I also love that there cannot be a 'Perfect' picture.

I feel this suits me just fine. I have bought a stick on jelly fisheye lens to attach to my phone camera and in case i can't master the concept of how to take a decent lomo picture... i'll fake it to make it... using photoshop. I'll post images as soon as i have them.

According to Lomography.com:

"Lomographic products are all characterized by the following traits: they are practical and sensual, they look good, they’re friendly, inexpensive, sexy, un-political, a tad intellectual (but not too high-brow) and distributed worldwide."

Strike A Pose

One of the most famous and personal 'Alice' inspired photo-shoots for ME has to be a set that the infamous Annie Leibovitz shot for Vogue in 2007. The primary focus is, of course, the clothes. But I think the mix of iconic imagery, non models and the sense of indifference makes this an extremely valid piece to look at.

(all images are copyright to Vogue & Annie Leibovitz. Found at: http://toadland.popsugar.com/170936)

I know it wont influence me directly but I am inspired by the strong sense of juxtaposition within this series of photographs.

There's other that I have been researching - but I find that their images are far to literal and very very harsh.

Don't Look Back In Anger...

So the idea has had to change.I'll stick with alice in wonderland though.

I think it's best to deviate from the original idea - only slightly though.

I sill want to photograph Bradford and the University - but I want to juxtapose this city with the idea of a 'Wonderland'

Thankfully my plastic models survived - now i've had to improvise on what i use to photograph them.

I've had to use my resourcefulness - which isn't always pleasant for me,
So....
I'll now be experimenting with:
A Canon IXUS digital camera on it's last legs

My ridiculously bad phone camera (complete with a £2 jelly fisheye lens)

A Lomo 3 lens Robot camera without flash
(waiting to get film developed)

A fuji Instax mini polaroid-esque camera

I'll try all 4 different 'tools' to see which of them give the best output.

Interesting side-thought... Are phone cameras the new Pinholes of this century?