The visual variation between each of the images within this body of work highlights how external factors can promote, influence and impede the creative process. In relation to my own creative practice I turn to art, and more specifically photography; as a way of processing emotions and events. Rather than fall back on maladaptive coping mechanisms, I shy away and create images which inadvertently tell my story when words cannot. I explore how exposure, vulnerability, grotesqueness, and intimacy within my work serve as a means to expand our cultural ideals for the human body. I investigate a multitude of dualities in two dimensional form by using photography and digital manipulation. Utilising the ‘imperfections’ within my own body to create dramatic imagery, anomalous shapes frequently appearing reminiscent of landscape or animals than human form.
Through the art-making process and exploration of the artwork, unconscious and conscious thoughts, feelings and fantasies can be expressed. Thus; a unique relationship between art and psychology presented itself, as an alternative medium for expression and communication. When reflecting upon the photographic self-portraits created I find myself questioning and analysing the philosophical and psychological considerations of art, both as author and audience; as a way of exploring new ways to communicate an emotional state.
