Probably the most important post on this blog..

I’ve realised with my images, there are different ways of photographing emotions.
With my images of death (out of the many themes i’ve shot), they’re too obvious, and this “crime scene” style has been done to the days.
So, i’m re-writing my proposal – and shooting – as we speak, to make it more..personal.

Film Noir focused on emotions instead of wide angle modern shots, like the ones i’ve been taking. Back in the 1940s to the late 1950s they didn’t have the technology to achieve this, and now i’m taking it back to how they framed and captured the emotions in their Noir films – and like Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock) used close ups, and emphasized small parts, that created the bigger story.
It’s not so much about making it look like a film still, but by working with a genre that has it’s roots in film, on face value, it might. It’s more about using the low key lighting, and my own emotions, but putting it into my own memories, much like what later 1960’s Noir films did, by using a self reflective manner.

So, using what i’ve learnt, i’m putting my previous shoots into the past, i’m going to work on Self Awareness, and Subjectivity – but the way Film Noir painted it.

• Self-awareness is the awareness of the self as separate from the thoughts that are occurring at any point in time. Without self awareness the self perceives and believes the thoughts that are occurring to be who the self is. Self awareness gives one the option or choice to choose thoughts being thought rather than simply thinking the thoughts that are stimulated from the accumulative events leading up to the circumstances of the moment.

• Subjectivity refers to a person’s perspective or opinion, particular feelings, beliefs, and desires. Much of scientific evidence, statistics and methods of measurement are considered subjective although the term is frequently used casually to refer to personal opinions. In philosophy, the term can either be contrasted with or linked with objectivity.

Also, not forgetting the Film Noir visual style in that era (40’s – 50’s) was commonly associated with German Expressionism (Noted for their use of Silent Film, which was said to be far ahead of Hollywood cinema.) Knowing that now, I don’t want Hollywood Cinema. It’s fake, it’s reproduced – it’s just another modern twist on an old, overdone tale. I want my images to speak for themselves, and the spectator is not force fed the ideas, although in a media saturated world we roam, this is going to be the most difficult obstacle to stomp down.

From now on, I will be considering the essence of Film Noir, the emotion, the mood and how to create an image the way they used to, but with my own experiences, and from now on, words are in the past.

I want to work with the available, the places I used to roam – i’m coming up to twenty this week, and i’m suddenly looking back at what i’ve achieved, to be alive is the main thing, but if I was to leave this planet, is there anywhere that is purely me, does a part remain? and can it live on? A body can be easily removed, changed, but the soul holds, and nurtures the emotions that we all share – now, I plan to put these emotions in images, working with the ideas of:

Confrontation, Seduction, Death, and Fear – and how I react to those, collaborating my thoughts and making them bloom into four different images, which will come under the title of Noir – a dedication to the genre that made me rethink how I see an image.

~ by Ashleigh Inglis on 05/25/2010.